Mombasa County chocking under toxic waste-Report

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Scavengers at Mwakirunge dumpsite in Kisauni sub-county. PHOTO: GEORGE OTIENO

Mombasa county is reeling under a toxic environment of 2,200 tonnes of waste generated daily.

According to a report by Clean Mombasa CBO on the state of Environment in the County, 68 per cent of wastes generated daily are organic.

The report further indicates that 18 per cent of the waste is composed of plastics, cardboard, paper and metals. Construction and junk constitute 14 percent of the waste stream.

Clean Mombasa CBO chairman Dr. Edwin Muinga wants Mombasa Governor Ali Hassan Joho to reclaim the former glory of Mombasa as the most environmental friendly, attractive and sustainable port city in Kenya and East Africa.

Medical facilities in Mombasa were said to generate biomedical waste estimtated to be 2-3 tons per day.

According to the report, most of the solid waste is poorly disposed in undesignated open grounds such as VOK, Kwa Karama, Kadongo, Junda, Saratoga and Mcheleni.

The CBO sites that the open disposal of solid waste has continuously posed negative environmental health impact through direct flow into water sources including open beaches which threatens the marine ecosystem and mangroves.

The mangroves are sparsely along Tudor, Port Reitz and Mwache Creeks.

” There is an urgent need for the County Government to fix infrastructure especially leading to Mwakirunge dump site”, said Dr. Muinga.

Mombasa has a growing population of 1.4 million people, according to data from World Population Review and is projected to hit 2.28 million by 2035.

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