{"id":4915,"date":"2026-01-05T11:53:04","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T11:53:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/4915\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T11:53:04","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T11:53:04","slug":"pollution-highway-how-athi-river-transports-millions-of-plastics-into-indian-ocean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/4915\/","title":{"rendered":"Pollution highway: How Athi River transports millions of plastics into Indian Ocean"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\u00a0Plastics wash up on the seafront in Lamu County. [File, Standard] <\/p>\n

As at August 2020, a plastic tube for packaging jelly; manufactured in 1998 \u2013 for skin application \u2013 was still, almost entirely, intact. On the tube, the letters \u2018Valon\u2019 \u2013 the jelly manufacturer \u2013 were still clearly visible.<\/p>\n

A team of researchers with Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute (KMFRI), Pwani University, and the Technical University of Mombasa, collected the tube, alongside a Blue Band container (also plastic) with the year 2015 written on it, at the Sabaki estuary \u2013 where the iconic Athi-Galana-Sabaki River joins the Indian Ocean.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not news that plastics don\u2019t biodegrade; not in the manner and speed we expect,\u201d says Dr Eric Okuku, a marine pollution researcher at KMFRI and lead researcher for the study.<\/p>\n

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