This last Saturday - June 20th - saw the first KPPC organized voluntary Beach Clean-up of 2020 take place. Because of the coronavirus the Clean Up for March did not happen and so it was time to go check out the beach and see what the waste situation was like.
Because of the virus there have been far fewer people on the beach and this has meant less waste also. However, it does not mean the beach is clean and there is much that has been there for some time – often hidden in the high water mark areas. So at 9 a.m. on Saturday until about midday a few hardy volunteers walked along the section between Watatu Watano and Bidi Badu cleaning up what trash there was.
Sadly, not all waste is washed up by the tides. There are clear signs of ‘Kenyan’ waste with beer cans, all kinds of local plastic bottles and wrappers, various alcohol bottles and numerous parts of flip flops clearly left by local visitors. We really need to think about what we take and especially what we take home after we go to the beach.
In all on Saturday we collected 170 kgs of waste in about 2 hours along a stretch of less than 2kms – after three months of near lockdown!! In 2019 we collected over 26000 kgs of waste from all the beaches of Kwale County on International Coastal Clean Up Day on September 21st. We have to reduce or even stop this happening. It is our waste. It is our problem. It is our responsibility.
As volunteer Dorcas, a student from TUM, said about Saturday’s effort, when told of the total weight collected, “That’s great, we saved a million marine life today. So honoured to be there. Thanks for the invite”. If only all of us could have that attitude and commitment.
In Kwale we have lovely beaches and we know Diani is a world class beach and thus a first class tourist destination and we want to keep it that way. Once things open up people will hopefully come back to enjoy our lovely beaches and the nice weather and our friendly culture. it is also chance before then to make clean that which we value but also depend upon for so many livelihoods and to commit to maintaining a clean and safe natural environment. It really is up to us – not just the few volunteers - but the many who say they want to live in a better Diani and a better world. As they say it’s time ‘to walk the talk’ – literally in this case.
The next major clean-up will hopefully be the 2020 International Coastal Clean Up in mid-September. Look out for details of that and come join us and make a difference.
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