BEACH CLEANUP YIELDS HUNDREDS OF PLASTIC BOTTLES AND OTHER PLASTIC WASTE
(Posted 15th November 2019)
While on a weeklong tour of the Kenya coast, following the launch of nonstop flights by Uganda Airlines between Entebbe and Mombasa, did opportunity arise to pay a visit to the Mombasa Serena Beach Resort & Spa and congratulate Mr. Herman Mwasaghua in person for his promotion to the position of General Manager.
Herman took the time to brief ATCNews on the plans for the period after Easter next year, when the resort will be closed for a major refurbishment and upgrades in a number of areas.
While walking to the beach did a view emerge, none of us expected to see, as the high tide had brought hundreds of plastic bottles and other plastic waste on shore, most of the debris by the look of it from foreign lands across the wide expanse of the Indian Ocean.
ATCNews had in the past reported about the various beach cleanups in the Seychelles, including the non inhabited Aldabra Atoll, where equally foreign plastic waste was collected earlier this year, and by the tons in that location.
Herman and I decided that an immediate beach clean up was needed and he mobilized his team who came to the beach with baskets and bags to collect the waste and make it presentable again for the many tourists who stayed at the resort – but were not at the beach at the time due to heavy rain.
This action ought to be repeated by other hotels at both north and south coast and all the other beaches further north to Malindi or south towards Shimoni, to rid the coastline of plastic debris, which is not only unsightly but dangerous for marine- and wildlife.
ATCNews says thank you to Herman and his team at the Mombasa Serena for their prompt reaction to the suggestion to do an immediate cleanup and encourages the General Managers of other hotels to do likewise.
Meanwhile, here in Kenya as well as around the world must governments now act to prohibit single use plastics, especially bottles and more so those with shrink wrappers on top, which, while bringing clean drinking water to those who need it, have polluted our planet beyond recognition.
