Fishermen from Mshomoroni in Kisauni are now realising the benefits of working in a clean beach environment.
Mshomoroni BMU chairperson Ali Mwaito on Thursday said they have started seeing improvement in earnings from fishing activities.
“Before, this place was very dirty and we did not care because we only ventured into the sea to fish. But when Akili Kadhaa CBO, Kenya Maritime Authority, Coast Development Authority and other stakeholders opened our eyes, we have now started realising the importance of the cleanliness,” Mwaito said.
They now conduct weekly clean-ups of the beach.
He spoke during a Mnyuchi beach clean-up and mangrove planting exercise in Junda.
Their earnings have jumped from an average of Sh1,800 a day to Sh3,500, almost doubling their initial figures.
Mwaito said the sensitisation has helped them become more mindful of their working environment.
Akili Kadhaa CBO chairman Juma Mashuhuri said although there has been a significant improvement on the level of cleanliness at the beach, more still needs to be done.
“This place has become a ground for sporting activities like football for many residents. This beach was like a dumpsite but now it has a face,” Mashuhuri said.
He noted that continuous sensitisation of the public on environmental protection is key and needs to be strengthened even more.
Mashuhuri said residents now know better than to dispose of their waste into the sea and the beach although some people still do it.
The cleanliness at the beach has seen more fish being caught and less diseases for children who go there to swim.
Kenya Maritime Authority corporate communication officer Michelle Wanga said poor attitude towards the environment and poor upbringing are the biggest impediments to environmental conservation.
Various NGOs said most people know what is right and what is wrong when dealing with the environment but still choose to do the wrong things because the damage is usually not immediately seen or felt.
“I will drink my water and just throw the bottle away because I am not in my home. Or I will throw it carelessly saying someone will pick it. That attitude is what destroys our future and that of our children,”she said at the Mnyuchi Beach in Junda.
KMA joined Akili Kadhaa CBO, Mshomoroni Beach Management Unit and other organisations in cleaning the Mnyuchi beach in Junda.
They also sensitised the community on the importance of environmental conservation and planted 1,000 mangrove seedlings.
The groups collected about a tonne of waste at the beach, which speaks to the level of ignorance on the damage careless disposal of waste does to the environment.
Coast Development Authority chairman Mzee Mwinyi said mangrove trees cannot thrive in an area polluted by waste, especially plastic waste.
He said mangroves play an important role as carbon sinks which absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
“The mangroves also form very important breeding grounds for fish thus bring fish closer to the fishermen,” he said.
Mwinyi said talk of sustainable projects like sea weed farming, crab fattening and fish pond establishment by Akili Kadhaa CBO and Mshomoroni BMU can only be actualised in clean environments.
“The marine tilapia can be reared at such fish ponds that can be established close to the beach to cut costs of venturing into the sea for fishing,” Mwinyi said.
The CDA chairperson said they will be talking to investors to put up a lighting project at the Mnyuchi beach to improve security in the area.
“We have revived this beach. Some time back, people could not come here to swim or catch fish,” he said.
He said in the long term, the place could be redeveloped into a tourist attraction site because of the nature of its beauty.
Rogers Wangila, the environment officer in the Mombasa county government, said the county has been sensitising communities on the proper way of disposing of their waste.
“We have been insisting that communities only use registered waste collectors. This is because they are trained on the proper ways to dispose of the waste,” Wangila said.
However, he lamented that many residents do not heed their advice and use anyone who shows up at their doorstep claiming to be waste collectors.
Wangila said some of these rogue collectors do not take the waste to designated collection points and dump them anywhere they see is an open space or an abandoned building.
“These end up in the ocean one way or another,” he said.
He said the county intends to start waste segregation at source where residents will be required to sort out their waste before placing them at specific points for collection.
“We have already done a three-month pilot project of waste segregation in Mvita Island and Likoni where we targeted 800 households. We used three waste bins per household.
“But residents want dry bins and wet bins. It was successful because there are those who used to take the dry waste to recycling centres,” he said.
He said wet waste or organic waste was being collected by private companies that were turning it into manure and organic fertilisers.
Wangila said this means if the project is implemented properly, there will be a significant reduction of waste that finds its way into the ocean.
“We will use our County Solid Waste Management Act and the national government’s Sustainable Solid Waste Management Act, both of which require residents to segregate waste from their households,” Wangila said.
