Drowning In Waste

While Zanzibar is cashing in on tourism, it is also battling plastic menace in the form of litter consisting of discarded water bottles and toiletries

- Richa Agarwal And Sonia Henam

COME 2019 and the nine-metre Flipflopi dhow made of 10 tonnes of recycled plastic will sail to Zanzibar as part of the Clean Seas initiative—a UN Environment campaign—to spread awareness along a coastline swamped by plastics. For Zanzibar, a semi-autonomous archipelago off the coast of Tanzania in East Africa famous for its historic forts and pristine beaches, the timing of the ship’s arrival coincides with its efforts to tackle the ever-growing plastic menace.

Zanzibar had earned the sobriquet, “blue island”, due to the high visibility of blue polythene bags prior to 2009. This was also the time when tourism was emerging as an important revenue-earning sector. To cash in on the high tourist flow, the island became the first place in East Africa to ban blue plastic carry bags the same year.

However, it did not solve the problem as usage of white ones increased. So, the Department of Environment (doe), Zanzibar, announced a full ban in 2011, which was revised this year. The new ban imposes fines, ranging from US $21.84 to $437, and a minimum one-month imprisonment on defaulters. “The good thing is market inspections are happening frequently now and defaulters are being fined,” says Farhat Mbarouk, doe director.