Only One Earth, Only One Lake Victoria, One Regional Policy

Uniting communities to tackle plastic pollution 

Lake Victoria provides for over 40 million people across East Africa and like the fish that swim freely across boundaries, so do plastics. 

Regional collaboration to adopt legislation against single-use plastics is essential to solving the problem. But also as a lot of waste flows directly from industries, households and fishing sites to the lake, engaging with lakeside communities is key. We can only effectively reduce plastic pollution if we tackle the problem from Source to Sea! 

Thanks to our amazing regional partners on the shores of Lake Victoria, we were able to  reach more than 300+ lakeside residents to carry out clean ups, awareness raising campaigns and physical workshops this world environment day. 

Our #PlasticRevolution went world-wide. From France to East Africa, we’re uniting communities to find local solutions that work for their environment.

This world environment day, our message is - Only One Earth, Only One Lake Victoria, East Africa, let’s unite for one regional policy

Our Earth Action numbers:

600kg of trash removed from the environment through 2 community clean ups; one in Kisumu, Kenya and one in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. 

1 boat race using plastic boats in France 

1,600 mangrove trees planted on Lamu Island, Kenya 

2 webinars and 1 physical conference bringing communities together to discuss sustainable solutions 

1 artivist demonstration in Kampala, Uganda with dancers, artists and even talking frogs 

1 workshop with youth entrepreneurs upcycling beach waste using low-tech methods in Dar es Salaam

In Mwanza, EMEDO supported by Flipflopi held  a clean up and dialogue between local residents including waste pickers, university students, households and the local government to discuss the challenges and opportunities for our community centre. 

Our clean up was a great success with businesses closing to participate and jogging clubs volunteering to carry our message across the city. 

We are piloting a small-scale  waste management programme for the SWEYA neighbourhood in Luchelele, Mwanza. By empowering the community with resources and skills to sustainably run their own household waste collection scheme for their neighbourhood, we’re redirecting plastics from entering the Lake and providing an income for the women.

In Kampala, we joined the Gabba landing site fishing community alongside artivist Arinitwe Peter and our partners from Plastic Talks for a fun day full of dancing, community dialogue and a massive sculpture of a talking frog made from plastic bottles. 

The frog gave out pre-recorded messages encouraging the community to rethink their consumption and adopt sustainable alternatives in a fun and positive way.

In Kisumu, we officially opened our revamped fish sculpture in Kisumu that has and continues to raise awareness about the negative impacts of plastic pollution on the lake and its biodiversity.  

We also joined hands with local organisations in Kisumu to conduct a clean up removing 500kg + of waste from the environment and ended world environment day with planting 20 trees at a local school.

On the coast,

In Dar es Salaam, Tanzania we partnered with Waste life to conduct a beach clean up at Coco Beach. Using the waste collected, we conducted a practical training with youth entrepreneurs from the beach community. We repurposed broken bottles by cutting them, in a low tech environment and turned them into chandeliers, drinking glasses and candles as well as art pieces from sea glass.

In Lamu, our workshop is surrounded by a beautiful mangrove forest. Due to the high demand of mangrove wood on the island, many part of the forest have disappeared. Our workshop team and mangrove expert, Hassan, planted 1,600+ mangroves in an effort to reforest parts of our precious forest. As we planted right next to our workshop, we will be able to monitor their growth and keep a close eye on making sure these seedlings have a good chance to establish themselves!

In France, as part of world ocean week, our french team, organized a boat race and took part with their raft named ‘Taka-Taka’ made from 600 coca-cola bottles. 
Our ambassador, the French sailing legend, Eric Loizeau moderated a conference exploring the different aspects of plastic in our society. We also had the opportunity to share our latest video, No time to WASTE.

How can you be a part of this?

Make your voice heard! 

We’re collecting 1 million signatures to show our leaders we’re ready for change. Be part of the #plasticrevolution now by signing and sharing our petition calling for a regional ban of unnecessary single-use plastics. 

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