A year's voluntary work in Equatorial Guinea was all it took for Cameroonian Linus Ayangwoh Embe to start his NGO, ASCOA. Now the organisation is helping to fight plastic waste - and much more besides - in Southwest Cameroon.
By Frida Leyina Voma
The beach is a study in contrasts. In the background, a number of blue coloured, shallow-water oil rigs, parked along a quayside. Then the light blue sea. In the foreground, a dark beach, sand a rich brown colour, thanks to the thick vegetation of the tropical forest. On that beach, two dozen bright-blue shirted youths, busily moving up and down, combing the sea-shore for washed-up plastic bottles. On their blue shirts, the words in light brown, "Save our oceans and beach". This is Oceans Day, 2021, Cameroon-style.
"I came up with the initiative to start with cleaning of the coastline. I think our beach really needs support. Mostly the way we are dumping our plastics in our community and the way we dispose our waste at the end of the day, all of these goods into the ocean and ocean play a vital role in our society and our life. So we have been doing this cleanup, beach cleanup for the since 2018," said Embe, who facilitated this year's cleanup.
According to the ICUN, over 300 million tons of plastic are produced every year for use in a wide variety of applications. Of that amount, at least 8 million tons of plastic ends up in our oceans every year, and makes up 80 percent of all marine debris from surface waters to deep-sea sediments.
And a whole lot of that plastic washes up on beaches in countries that manufacture almost no plastic at all. Countries like Cameroon.
The youths in blue are team members of the Association for Community Awareness (ASCOA). Embe formed the organisation after spending a year working with Save the Children in Equatorial Guinea.
Based in southwest Cameroon and with offices in Kenya, the US and Europe, the NGO focuses on a number of issues, environmental protection being just one. ASCOA members have organised annual events to raise awareness about the ocean and now intend to go a step further and regularly clean the beaches in the area.
Cameroon's coastline extends 400 km along the oil-rich Gulf of Guinea and the ASCOA members are active in the Limbe-Idenau area. Their work literally is a drop in the ocean, however, for the plastic items are carried to the beaches by tides and wind, from both local and foreign shores. But for today, the volunteers are determined that Bobende beach will be immaculate and litter-free.
"We want to make sure we have a good, healthy life if our ocean is clean and also for touristic purposes, there is a need for cleaning the coastline," Embe said.
The amount of plastic in the ocean is expected to triple in the next 20 years if action is not taken. While African countries are at the forefront of legislative action against the use of single-use plastics, they are mostly by-standers as the world's most developed nations pump plastics into the ocean.
According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, or ICUN, the main sources of marine plastic are land-based, from urban and storm runoff, sewer overflows, beach visitors, inadequate waste disposal and management, industrial activities, construction and illegal dumping.
Plastic pollution directly affects marine species and microplastics are increasingly reported to be found in the fish and seafood consumed by humans.
Cameroon is one of 34 African countries that have passed legislation designed to prevent the of single-use plastics, placing a ban on non-biodegradable plastics in 2014. That followed a "ministerial calculation that Cameroon dumped more than six million tonnes of plastic waste annually," according to the environmental group, Greenpeace.
However, where some African countries have manage to place outright bans on plastic bags, for example, Cameroon is battling to implement the legislated sanctions. It has asked local organisations, and others, to assist.
ASCOA signalled an intention to carry out regular activities to keep Cameroon’s beaches are clean and trash-free by carrying out annual clean-up exercises, starting in 2018. In partnership with other civil society organizations and a local waste management company, over a hundred volunteers were trained and mobilized for the day-long events. In 2019, a total of 50 tons of rubbish was removed from the beaches around Limbe, during the clean-up campaign.
Meanwhile, however, the storm water drains and ocean currents continue to bring more blue bottles - from local shores and foreign - to wash up on the beautiful, dark brown beaches of Limbe.
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Frida Leyina Voma is a beach cleanup activist in Limbe.
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