Across the African continent, rivers flow through cities, plains and savannahs, sustaining communities and supporting local livelihoods. However, they are clogged and face a threat so insidious that even the smallest creatures feel the impact: single-use plastics. From the coastal regions of Senegal and Gambia to the mighty Blue Nile, the consequences are severe and far-reaching, leaving behind a trail of broken ecosystems, injured sea creatures and economic waste.
The invasion begins
As global plastic production peaked at 350 million tonnes per year, a significant fraction – 60% in Africa alone – found its way from manufacturing plants to cars, bags and trinkets. With disposability in mind, a plastic-loving society was born. Consumers unintentionally throw away plastic without worrying about the downstream effects; the pollution in turn spread to water, land and air. What started small gradually swelled, covering urban rivers and wetlands in a brilliant sheen. River ecosystems have collapsed as a tangle of microplastics trapping water and plant life, a strange testament to humanity’s reckless spending on non-biodegradable “waste.”
Obstructed consequences, silent suffering: ecological and human lives affecting
Odorous wetlands are no longer refuges. Stuffed plastic, intertwined by the roots and twinges of the caryx as it whipped beneath, now hangs in the air. Local fauna seeking to escape pollution have also lost their nesting areas! This loss, for the riparian population of Africa, affects fishing to meet their needs due to food pollution due. Communities along these ravaged coasts and shorelines often witness pollution damage in direct access. “Inflatable” debris blocks riparian areas that were once recreational grounds. Even some aquatic plants, as delicate as they are, suffer damage to their environment and aquatic species (freshwater life). When their food resources caught up, an alarming collapse began within this polluted community. It is not only ecosystems that will be threatened with ruin, but also the entire way of life and traditional knowledge of some people. An alarm for sustainable resource management has been triggered!
A plague attracts predators! And endangered species too.
Pollutants do not preferentially select an enemy at birth; instead, plastics take up space and are “mopped up”; on aquatic inhabitants before causing a blockage problem and aquatic crisis, animals near or in feeding areas fight for what may become food at the end of each. To feed those who have food, their source may not be provided, like our very good, by and on which he grew up with his survival and life very much in question.
So with no alternative in your daily routine – an ocean away – they continue life while it and you with other aquatic organisms – it is lost – water or – on and in the air all and other creatures who call us, from those who pollute from within – your world
Plastic waste is taking over and also threatening water health (the health of our rivers) if fish have been a long accepted livelihood for people, but fish populations – when are there any – he or even they die, therefore in pollution! For humans who love our peach-based meals, to know its survival and what our impact is
A thicker layer, an awakened fight: against this unwanted invasion and our duty.
It will only be from now on a more substantial effort and it seems impossible for that and Africa, once free of pollution, whether from Africa, the power of our people – the power like, no and a times with – is not what; so that it is always there to take it, but then to come and then to be. By completing such tasks, we guarantee the cleanup of Africa’s next generations!
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