Plastic pollution is one of the problems on the island of Mozambique, where the Portuguese discoverer Vasco da Gama arrived 525 years ago on his way to India and where the country’s first capital was born.
The local economy is centered on fisheries and marine resources, and plastics are a threat to species as well as aggression to the oceans, which are already under pressure due to climate change.
Bottles, corks and all sorts of plastic containers are collected on the beaches by collectors or delivered by restaurants and businesses, congregating in the utility yard in the center of the island.
This is where the recycling shop wants to change the course of this pollution story.
“Here we clean, separate the plastic and try to produce new parts,” explains José Junior, who is in charge of the recycling project run by the Portuguese non-governmental organization (NGO) Oikos (in partnership with URB-África/UCCLA, among others). , with the support of Camões – Institute for Cooperation and Language.
Specialized equipment crushes and shapes plastic to create mosaics, tiles, blocks and other items that a team of young people from the island perfect every day, and now they are looking for buyers to make the workshop self-sustaining.
Word spreads and kids show up at the workshop with a handful of plastic to sell: Today, Momade Mularanja, one of the recycling operators, assessed the waste and delivered 20 metiqai (just under 50 euro cents) to the delivery team. their.
“This is a sign that the public is taking on the idea that plastic can be valued if it is removed from the environment and recycled,” he says.
“There are a lot of plastic things on the market. Pasta, sugar, biscuit packaging” and lots of kids throwing them around,” complains Berta Eusebio, a health worker in the municipality of Ilha de Mozambique who wants to reduce the risk of “plastic packaging”. to be able to travel to another continent.”
It’s a process that “will take time”, but José Junior believes that if the solution is born in the community, it will be easier to “mobilize the population for civic action”, in which the garbage will stop landing on the ground and begin to be recycled “without endangering the oceans” .
The workshop’s activities fit into a marine conservation strategy that includes community projects (supported by Camões and Blue Ventures Conservation) aimed at ending rampant fishing, an activity so voracious that today there are boats “that reclaim the land from nothing,” says Dane de Almeida, one of Oikos’ liaisons with the communities in charge of the marine reserve.
The projects are “trying to help communities restore endangered fish stocks” through self-managed management measures.
You cross the stretch of sea that separates the island from the mainland and reach Cabaseira Pequena, a fishing village where a local government council was established, which meets with the maritime authorities under one of the largest trees in the village.
Living conditions are precarious, and the preservation of the greatest wealth, fishing, is discussed.
The creation of fenced areas, areas demarcated by buoys, where no fish can be fished for a certain period of time, so that the fish can breed and not disappear, is being discussed.
“The message we’re trying to get across is that you can’t get the little fish out,” says Fatima Momade, a community activist who, like the rest of the team, admits that changing behavior takes time.
Ossumane Abudu, head of the communal fisheries council, comes ashore and approaches the last boat of the day that arrived in Cabaseira: he brings a mullet and a rabbit, which are weighed and sold right on the shore.
Before returning home, he puts out to sea for several kilometers to check the location of the buoys that mark one of the fenced areas where he hopes no one will fish in the coming months.
“We created this last year and it worked because the missing fish are back. So, this year we want to do it again,” with rules and penalties for those who break them,” he tells Luce.
“Anyone who enters and fishes is punished up to 12,000 meticai”, about 177 euros.
Manuel Joao of the maritime administration accompanies the process.
In view of the “lack of fish,” this seems like the right path to “make us happy,” he says, given that in Cabaseira Pequena, happiness is synonymous with more fish, the center of the entire local economy. : with this “we all win.”
Residents “decide how to do it, we provide technical support,” Dane explains in a project that began with a community diagnosis that brought complaints about a growing shortage of fish to the fore.
“There are more and more fishermen, there are 5,800 in the area, and the pressure must be eased,” along with enforcement of the prohibition periods and the prohibition of harmful practices such as nets and cages so tight that they prevent small animals from reaching reproductive age.
Oikos offers alternative sources of income and supports women to start small food preparation businesses, and seeks other projects such as mangrove honey with beehives made and installed by the community.
It is during a visit to Cabaceira Pequena that José Junior rediscovers the plastic plague.
Raul Nato occupies one of the sandy streets with a mountain of plastic trash, which he buys to resell with the help of a small army of children and youth who turn and sort each piece.
From this and other locations, he sends everything to Nampula, the provincial capital, 200 kilometers away, where industrial plants recycle waste to produce new tools.
Raul exchanges contact with José, who explains that there is a new recycling shop on the other side of the bay that wants to recycle what he accumulates.
Less plastic, more fish is the formula he believes in to give the island a healthy new breath, a history that has always depended on what the sea has to offer.
Time and population will determine whether the new formula will work.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
I am Michael Melvin, an experienced news writer with a passion for uncovering stories and bringing them to the public. I have been working in the news industry for over five years now, and my work has been published on multiple websites. As an author at 24 News Reporters, I cover world section of current events stories that are both informative and captivating to read.