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By JEREMIAH WAKAYA, NAIROBI, Kenya, 29 November – Global efforts to combat the spread of marine litter have received considerable momentum at the Conference on the Blue Sustainable Economy that has just ended after Norway and The World Bank has committed $ 300 million to combat marine litter.
Of the US $ 300 million, the World Bank and Norway have allocated US $ 100 million for the management of dumping in the oceans.
To strengthen the fight against marine litter, the Norwegian delegation led by the Minister of International Development, Nikolai Astrup, has announced a contribution of 200 million US dollars for the next four years to support initiatives aimed at to fight against the increase in the number of microplastics in the oceans.
In another pledge, Antigua and Barbuda, a Commonwealth state consisting of two islands of the same name, has pledged to ban plastic utensils and polystyrene next year.
The Bahamas, a Caribbean country, has promised to ban single-use plastic bags, straws and cans by 2020.
Other commitments include the implementation of a zero pollution campaign by Timor Leste, a country in Southeast Asia, and sustainable plastic-free tourism by the autonomous region of Sao Tome and Southeast Asia. -Principe, an African island near the equator.
Java House, a chain of coffee shops, is engaged in a transition to plastic-free services in all its stores.
A total of eight plastic waste management commitments were made during the three-day conference that ended on Wednesday. More than 62 commitments have been made in the general areas of marine protection, plastics and waste management, maritime security and financing.
Kenya is committed to meeting the challenge of waste management and plastic pollution through strict regulations that banned the use of disposable plastics last August after the expiration of 39, a notice period of six months in February 2017.
The use of plastic bags and containers has become a major existential threat to the fishing industry. The latest estimates from the United Nations Environment Program show that more than eight million tons of plastic are discarded each year in the ocean.
Projections also indicate that the amount of microplastics – nylon, polystyrene and polyethylene – will be released annually into the ocean at 230,000 metric tons, an average of 13,000 pieces of plastic per square kilometer of ocean, which constitutes an additional danger for the fish.
The amount of plastic waste in the ocean is expected to increase tenfold by 2020, exceeding the number of fish by 2050.
Plastic microparticles can be absorbed into the flesh of fish, making seafood unfit for human consumption.
Plastic microparticles are particularly harmful because some of them may contain heavy metals.
In July 2017, leading scientists in France and Malaysia projected the annual consumption of microplastics from seafood in Europe at 11,000.
In the report published in Scientific Reports, a scientific journal of an international scientific publisher, Nature Research, scientists have listed 36 microplastics in 120 fish samples.
Although Kenya has joined other countries in the sea cleansing campaigns in previous years, the country has not yet set a goal for the realization of a coastline without pollution.
At the forefront of global efforts to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 14 on the sustainable management and protection of marine and coastal ecosystems from pollution, Sri Lanka declared in January its ambitious goal to to reach a pollution – free coastline by 2030.
The Asian country has stepped up waste recycling as part of a bold action plan to reverse the course of plastics.
According to the United Nations, more than three billion people depend on marine and coastal resources to live.
In addition to plastic pollution, this vital resource faces other hazards, including the over-exploitation of at least 30% of the world's fish stocks.
The global agency has also reported a 26% increase in ocean acidification since the industrial revolution.
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