‘We are in trouble,’ Lake Victoria fishers cry out as plastics accumulate in the lake

Most villages in Tanzania do not have even a single litter bin.
In many parts of the shores of Lake Victoria, plastics are everywhere.
The fishing community is blamed for using illegal fishing nets made out of plastic
A 2015 study conducted in the Mwanza region of Tanzania found evidence of microplastics in at least 20% of Nile perch (Lates niloticus) and Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) species.

Tiny microplastics found in cosmetics, household cleaning products are secretly poisoning Lake Victoria

Using the Beat The MicroBead(BTMB) app, we randomly picked twelve cosmetics off a shelf in a supermarket to check if they contained microplastics.
Among the 11 products, 5 of them have microplastics in them. The products that have microplastic are; F and W exfoliating shower gel, Dove shower gel, Listerine Advanced Mouthwash(had sceptical microplastics), Pantene shampoo and conditioner and Johnson’s Face care gel wash. None of these products is a local product.
In humans, microbeads kill more than 1 million people. On average, an individual eats and inhales 70,000 plastic particles each year.

Finding Bread in Waste

Women’s group in Kisumu creates products from plastic trash and water hyacinth, and has sent almost 300 orphans to school.

Plastic Pollution of Lake Victoria in Uganda: Who is to Blame?

Polyethene, often used in bags, wrappers and films, contributes 60 per cent of analysed microplastic particles, thus making it the biggest of the plastic pollutants of Lake Victoria
Who is responsible for protecting the lake from pollution? What can be done to eradicate the said unsustainable human activities?

Reusing, Recycling to Stop Plastic Pollution in Lake Victoria

Up to 503,000 tonnes of plastic waste generated by Kenya; only 7% recycled.
A study revealed the presence of most microplastics in the vicinity of fish landing and recreational beaches.
The county government, local CBOs and youth groups are carrying out clean-up activities in Dunga Beach, Kisumu Kenya

State of Media Coverage Of The Nile: More Needs To Be Done

That the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) project has polarized opinion and continues to do so, has never been in doubt. Neither is the fact that this dam project has inspired hot, nationalistic passions on either side of the argument.

Pangolins in the Dock

The pangolin is the world’s most trafficked mammal. No one truly knows its conservation status in Kenya. When COVID-19 broke out in early 2020, some medical researchers linked coronavirus to horseshoe bats. Other researchers suspected the malayan or javan pangolin to be the intermediate host of coronavirus before it jumped to human beings. But is the pangolin really guilty as charged?