Recycling Garbage From Lake Victoria, Ugandan Made Innovative Tourist Boat

Flowering plants magically rise from Lake Victoria to a wooden boat, giving it a verdant atmosphere that many visitors love.

The initial attraction becomes more compelling when Ugandan tourists learn that the vegetation comes from an innovative recycling project that uses thousands of soil-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. He 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 detached to drift around for fun.

Many who come to relax here in Luzira, a lakeside suburb of Uganda’s capital Kampala, know nothing of the ship’s history. Kateeba insists that it is above all “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 declining 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 have a pollution problem as a country…I decided to design something out of the ordinary,” Kateeba said, gazing at the horizon of the lake stained with a green substance that indicates pollutants from a nearby brewery.

He 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 have been tied in fishing nets and coated with solid soil, creating a solid foundation on which the boat is moored and which is also fertile climbing ground for tropical plants.

Today the ship, marketed as Floating Island, can comfortably accommodate 100 visitors at a time, Kateeba said.

“It’s morning glory,” he said proudly, stroking a vibrant flowering vine on a recent afternoon as he prepared to undocking the ship for the enjoyment of his patrons. Elsewhere on the ship, a group of teenagers were dancing on TikTok. Upstairs, a carpenter was building a new wooden deck.

Jaro Matusiewicz, a visiting Greek businessman, said he had ‘never seen a place like this’ and praised the cozy atmosphere from the ship while devouring fish and chips.

“It’s a very good idea,” he said. “If you collect the bottles and use them, that’s great! … Not only are you cleaning up the environment, but you are also providing something unique, very unique.

A similar project was launched on the beaches of Kenya in 2018, where a small boat, known as Flipflopi, was built entirely from recycled plastic that once littered sandy shores and towns along the ocean. Indian.

In 2021, the Flipflopi crossed Lake Victoria “to raise awareness of the pollution that affects the region’s most critical freshwater ecosystem”according to the United Nations Environment Programme.

Kateeba said he hopes his boat will be exemplary.

“I’m sure with a bit of experience we should be able to encourage other people to design things,” he said. “Other methods, not necessarily of this type…to try to tackle plastic pollution in Lake Victoria.”

(with information from AP)

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