Summary of Lake Victoria clean-ups

Between the 25^th of February and 11^th of March, the ‘Clean Shores Great Lakes’ project conducted 20 clean-ups in the region of Mwanza on the southern (Tanzanian) shoreline of Lake Victoria. Clean-ups were carried out at beaches, fish landing sites, markets, and river mouths, which are all hotspots of litter that enter Lake Victoria. Fifteen of the 20 clean-ups were carried out on the mainland and 5 were conducted on Ukerewere Island, the largest lake island in Africa.

Importantly, our clean-ups were designed not to disrupt people’s livelihoods, so we started early (7 am) and worked for only a couple of hours. To make these quick clean-ups effective our team were joined by many volunteers including jogging clubs, scouts, youth organisations, market traders and Mwanza council.

In total 2335 volunteers joined our efforts and with their help over 13500 kg of litter was collected – almost 180000 items of discarded waste. Plastics accounted for 70% of all the litter, with clothing (12.5%) and cardboard (6%) also collected in significant quantities. Discarded plastic bags were the most found item (40000+), followed by plastic bottles (almost 25000) and food wrappers (14000+).

A huge thank you to everyone involved – together we are making a difference!