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Clean Oceans: Setting Sail for Waste-Free Waterways

Impacts

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Bahia de Kino, Mexico
© Félix Vigné AFD

To combat the proliferation of plastic plaguing the world’s oceans, Agence Française de Développement has teamed up with the European Investment Bank and Germany’s development bank, KfW. Together, they are committed to the Clean Oceans initiative, launched in 2018. Its objective remains unchanged: to support programs that collect, sort and treat this waste before it reaches major waterways.

In Lomé, a coastal city of 1.4 million and the capital of Togo, AFD has been supporting the modernization of the solid waste treatment system for several years. A new landfill site and a system to isolate recyclable materials have been built. 

AFD is also supporting the renovation of existing landfill sites to reduce their environmental impact. The program has already reduced the amount of plastic waste disposed of on the streets and dumped into sewage channels. 

In this way, the amount of waste reaching the Atlantic Ocean is being reduced too. Read more about better waste management in ports and harbors, innovative projects to keep plastics out of the oceans and storm water management in cities to stop plastics from entering waterways, in the new report on the Clean Oceans Initiative.  

See Lomé’s story in the video below.   

 

Further reading:  All you need to know about the Clean Oceans Initiative