As Ivory Coast hosted the 50th World Environment Day on 5 June 2023, the African Development Bank (AfDB) mobilised 200 volunteers to collect plastic waste from the beach at Grand-Bassam, a 35-minute drive from Abidjan.
Although the terrorist attack in 2016 compromised its tourist appeal, the town of Grand-Bassam in Ivory Coast owes its reputation to its beach surrounded by mythical palm trees. However, the seaside resort is also losing its appeal with the tide of plastic waste that covers it day after day. Faced with this situation, the African Development Bank (AfDB) recently launched a clean-up operation.
The initiative was attended by 200 people, including community workers, staff from the Ivorian Ministry of the Environment, the United Nations system, the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and KFO, a company specialising in logistics in Ivory Coast. The hundreds of plastic bottles and bags collected were delivered to the Association ivoirienne de valorisation des plastiques (AIVP) created in 2020. This mobilisation was in line with the theme of World Environment Day, which is being celebrated on 5 June 2023 under the theme “Solutions to plastic pollution”.
Grand-Bassam is plagued by this phenomenon, coupled with the spectacular floods that have washed tonnes of waste into its coastal zone in recent years. According to Philibert Koffi Koffi of the Centre de Recherches Océanologiques (CRO) in Abidjan, up to 150 kilometres of Ivory Coast’s 500-kilometre coastline could be at risk “if nothing is done in the next twenty years or so”.
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It is therefore with a view to reversing this situation that the AfDB is promoting cleanliness on the beach at Grand-Bassam, which is much frequented, including by nationals. “The beach clean-up we are undertaking today is a showcase for a global solution to a global problem, as around 3% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are generated by plastics. This is why the AfDB has committed to a circular economy programme to ensure that resources are reduced, reused and recycled,” explains Anthony Nyong, Director of the Climate Change and Green Growth Department at the financial institution.
Benoit-Ivan Wansi
