Moussa Mbengue, an activist who lives in Dakar, the capital of Senegal, organizes beach activities with volunteers to clean beaches covered in plastic waste and aims to raise environmental awareness among children, reports Anadolu.

Mbengue, who lives on the Ngor coast of Dakar, paints neighborhood murals, develops environmental projects and especially tries to mobilize young people against beach pollution through his association, “Rafetal Ngor” (Let’s beautify Ngor).

In a statement to Anadolu after a beach clean-up activity, Mbengue said that as the use of plastic increases in the country, the beaches are getting polluted at the same speed.

Drawing attention to the fact that pollution has reached alarming levels on almost the entire coast of Dakar, Mbengue said: “The beaches where I used to run when I was a child are now impassable because of plastic waste. Our coasts are invaded by plastic waste. We have to save the beaches from becoming garbage dumps. In two hours, we collected 497 bags of garbage with young people and children”. awareness in schools”

Local environmental associations also support clean-up efforts.

Modou Fall, president of the association “Senegal Propre” (Clean Senegal), known in the region as the “Plastic Man” for his work in the fight against plastic waste, described the pollution on several beaches in Dakar as a “disaster”, arguing that local authorities have not taken enough steps to address problem.

Fall pointed out that the law banning single-use plastic products, which came into effect in Senegal in 2020, is still not being implemented and stressed that the use of plastic is increasing as the process drags on.

Krystel Serbin, who runs community integration projects and participated in the event from France, also said that they aim to create environmental awareness, especially among children.

Serbin stated that six young people aged between 18 and 25-year-olds from a youth organization in France participated in this activity, noting that they carry out various projects of social and environmental cohesion with the association Rafetal Ngor.

Explaining that the beaches contain a wide variety of garbage, from diapers to animal bones, Serbin said: “Our main goal is to raise awareness about environmental pollution by meeting with children in schools”.

Approximately 259,000 microplastics per square kilometer on the coast of Dakar

According to data from the Ministry of the Environment of Senegal for 2025, almost half of the more than 250,000 tons of plastic waste produced in the country in 2024 originated in the capital, Dakar.

According to data from the association “Senegal Zero Waste”, Senegal is ranked 21st among the countries that pollute the world’s oceans the most with plastic.

A study published in the “ScienceDirect” database in 2023 found that approximately 259,000 microplastic particles per square kilometer were found on the surface of the sea near the coast of Dakar.

Source: prizrenpost