Diani - the name evokes thoughts of the palm trees, clear blue waters, and powder-white sand that have earned this destination the title of Africa’s best beach six years in a row.
Nestled on Kenya’s south coast, Diani - home to the Mijikenda people, has grown rapidly in size over the last few decades, flocked by locals and foreigners alike, attracted by its beauty and looking to capitalise on the tourism boom.
Today, over 100,000 people call the Diani/Ukunda urban area home.
However, as the town has grown, the local waste management system has failed to adapt. It is no longer rare to pass by heaps of waste on roads and beaches.
According to a 2019 report by the International Coastal Cleanup Kenya, a staggering 22,310 kgs of marine litter was collected across the south coast in a one-day exercise.
One group of local residents aims to make a change.
Today, we sit down with Susan Scull-Carvalho, the Founder of Kwale Plastics Plus Collectors (Flipflopi’s partner project on the south coast of Kenya), to find out more about what they do, why they do it, how they’ve been affected by COVID-19, and what the way forward is.
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