We need to act with urgency and some seriousness to preserve and protect the country’s remaining mangrove forests, says Pacific Recycling Foundation founder Amitesh Deo.
In his message for International Day for the Conservation of the Mangrove Ecosystem, Mr Deo highlighted there were dump sites located close to the sea.
He said leachate and overflow of waste material from dump sites had become a major concern which authorities needed to look into.
“And our mangroves are in great danger due to increasing levels of waste materials that dump sites are not equipped to deal with,” he said.
“Particularly in informal settlements that are not part of any proper waste management system and usually look at the simplest ways of disposing of them.
“We need to prioritise these communities and provide them with proper waste management solutions as the chances of their waste material ending up in the mangroves are high. We really cannot blame these people if we have not provided them with solutions.
“It is also becoming increasingly important to lessen the burden on our dump sites and landfill through proper waste management systems as leachate and overflow of waste are significantly contributing to the degradation of our mangroves.”
Mr Deo said proper waste management, in particular recycling initiatives, was critical and needed to be given importance for a healthy mangrove ecosystem.
“Sometimes too much focus is diverted toward planting mangroves or one-off clean-up campaigns to mark environmental sustainability, however, many times we forget to appreciate and mitigate the causes of mangrove degradation.
“One of the reasons is that waste management is a topic that not many want to talk about or gets the least priority, and this has been evident in recent discussions that the PRF has been involved in.”
Mr Deo said there was a need to move quickly into looking at the state of some dump sites and what sort of environmental hazard they posed.
“We would also like to mark the International Day for the Conservation of the Mangrove Ecosystem by saluting the efforts of our Collection Pillars of Recycling, those who are involved in waste picking at dump sites and other locations for their daily survival. They continue to play an integral role in keeping our environment clean and increasing the longevity of dump sites.”