The December Malindi Monthly Clean Up takes place this morning, Thursday 17 December, and not on Saturday as every month, as the main national and county authorities and institutions that always support the organisers, PWAM and Malindi Green And Blue, would not be able to attend.
In times of Covid-19 gatherings and any kind of meetings must be kept to a minimum, so this month's Clean Up will be held mainly on the beach in front of Malindi's jetty and the new sea front, starting from the fish market this morning at 8am.
Participants will be divided into groups and will be able to participate in the collection of rubbish while keeping the natural distances that one usually respects at the seaside.
Why on the beach and in the fishermen's area? Because that is where the greatest pollution is generated lately on the shores of the Indian Ocean in Malindi Bay. Fishing boats and companies that receive fish and crustaceans and then pack them, use plastic and polystyrene which they often safely disperse between sea and beach. This dangerous pollution, for the fish fauna, must end so the cleaning exercise, which has always been done to raise awareness among citizens and public opinion, in this case is also the denunciation of bad habits that must absolutely be stopped. Polystyrene, in particular, is highly carcinogenic and in the sea it breaks down into micro-particles that are ingested by fish, which can not only die from it, but also become harmful to those who eat them once caught.
That's why this month we will be on the beach cleaning up and we invite everyone, not just today, in their own small way wherever they are on the Kenyan coast, to do the same, combining collection with awareness raising. In the meantime, the recycling projects are progressing at the same pace and should sooner or later see a collection centre in Malindi along the lines of the one in Watamu, which for now is helping us to process the plastic by taking it to the Ecoworld centre in Dabaso.