A polluted Ugandan beach with abandoned boats and plastic waste highlights environmental challenges faced by communities.
Out of 17, eight of them are among the top 20 with the least effective plastic waste management practices – up from five in 2015. This has worsened marine pollution and adversely affected activities in the region. Coastal provinces account for about 56% of west Africa’s GDP and one-third of the population lives there. In 2018, west African nations launched the West Africa Coastal Area Management Programme to protect and restore the ecological, social and economic assets of coastal areas. It’s supposed to do this by addressing coastal erosion, flooding and pollution. Last year it received an additional US$246 million in funding from the World Bank. This has brought the World Bank’s total financing of the project to US$492 million.
SOURCE: THE CONVERSATION