Flowering plants rise as if by magic from Lake Victoria to a wooden boat, giving it a leafy atmosphere that many visitors love.
The initial attraction becomes more compelling when Ugandan tourists learn that the vegetation arises from an innovative recycling project that uses thousands of dirt-encrusted plastic bottles to anchor the boat.
Former tour guide James Kateeba started building the boat in 2017 in response to the tons of plastic debris he saw in the lake after heavy rains. She realized that the boat could serve as an example of a sustainable business on the shores of Lake Victoria: a floating restaurant and bar that could be untethered to drift for pleasure.
Many who come to relax here in Luzira, a lakeside suburb of Uganda’s capital Kampala, know nothing of the ship’s backstory. Kateeba insists that it is first and foremost “a conservation effort”one man’s attempt to protect one of Africa’s great lakes from degradation.
He lake victoria It is the second largest freshwater lake in the world and spans three countries. However, it is plagued by debris from runoff and other pollution, sand mining, and a decline in water levels due in part to climate change.
Layers of plastic debris float near some beaches during the rainy season, a visible sign of pollution that worries fishing communities that rely heavily on the lake.
“The fact that we had a pollution problem as a country…I decided to design something out of the ordinary,” Kateeba said, looking out at the lake’s horizon stained with a green substance that indicates pollutants from a nearby brewery.
It started by asking fishermen at nearby landing sites to collect plastic bottles for a small fee. Received more than 10 tons of bottles in six months. The lots were tied in fishing nets and smeared with solid soil, creating firm foundations on which the boat is moored and which are also fertile climbing ground for tropical plants.
Today, the ship, marketed as the Floating Island, can comfortably serve 100 visitors at a time, Kateeba said.
“This is the morning glory,” he said proudly, stroking a vibrant flowering vine one recent afternoon as he prepared to unmoor the ship for the enjoyment of his clients. Elsewhere on the ship, a group of teens were dancing on TikTok. Upstairs, a carpenter was building a new wooden deck.
Jaro Matusiewicz, a visiting businessman from Greece, said he had “never seen a place like this”, and praised the “cozy” atmosphere of the ship while devouring fish and chips.
“This is a very good idea,” he said. “If you’re collecting the bottles and using them, that’s great! … You’re not only cleaning up the environment, but you’re also providing something unique, very unique.”
A similar project was launched on the beaches of Kenya in 2018, where a small boat, known as a Flipflopi, was built entirely from recycled plastic that once littered sandy shorelines and cities along the Indian Ocean.
In 2021, the Flipflopi went on a trip across Lake Victoria “to raise awareness about the pollution that affects the most critical freshwater ecosystem in the region”according to the United Nations Environment Program.
Kateeba said he hopes his boat will be exemplary.
“I’m sure with a little bit of experience we get from this, we should be able to encourage other people to design things,” he said. “Other methods, not necessarily of this type… of trying to deal with plastic pollution in Lake Victoria.”
(with information from AP)
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Source-www.infobae.com