This archive report was first published on 25 June 2020.
Base Titanium, a Kwale-based Australian mining firm, has launched a campaign to clean up tourist attraction sites in the county through a programme dubbed 'trash for money' or 'T4C'. The programme, which is running alongside the National Hygiene Programme 'Kazi Mtaani', aims to help the youth earn money in a declining economy and clean up the environment.
According to Base Titanium's community relations manager, Pius Kassim, the programme was conceived as a social response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The programme has started at Diani municipality, a thriving tourism hub, where over 5,600 kgs of trash have been collected along the Mombasa-Lunga Lunga highway and along the sandy shores of the Diani beach.
Under the programme, a thousand youth have been hired in Kwale to take part in the Kazi Mtaani project, where they earn a daily wage of Sh600. The youth are undertaking duties such as street cleaning, fumigation, disinfection, garbage collection, drainage unclogging, and bush clearing among other tasks.
Speaking on Wednesday, Kassim said, “Since last month we have been supporting youth to clean and spruce up the tourist resort town of Diani in a programme dubbed trash for cash.” He urged residents to embrace the cleanup campaign, saying it would help reduce unhygienic conditions that breed diseases.
Project Development Advisor at Kwale Plastics Plus Collectors, Susan Scull-Carvalho, who is spearheading the environmental cleanup effort, said the daily wages paid to the laborers mean a lot to the participants and their families during this difficult economic time. She added that the programme has been successful in collecting over 5,600 kgs of trash and plans are underway to increase the number of participants as more partners come on board.
On Wednesday, the trash for cash team carried out a clean-up along two of Diani’s popular beach areas of Watatu Watano and Bidu Badu beaches where 165 kgs of rubbish was collected. Susan said pollution of the ocean by plastic and trash is an all too common sight with devastating marine implications.
She said, “It’s a win-win project that has been appreciated by many people who have witnessed its implementation and impact.” According to the World Atlas, nearly 513 million tons of plastics end up in the oceans every year threatening the globe, and beaches full of plastic garbage are unattractive to tourists.
