00:01Plastic pollution in the Congo River has now become a scourge, especially for the fishing communities.
00:07Some have even ditched fishing altogether because it is more profitable to sell the plastic waste they troll out of
00:15the river,
00:15the world's second most powerful water cause after the Amazon.
00:20Since catching fish on this river has become very complicated, I've started fishing for plastic.
00:26Can you believe it? Getting fish is becoming difficult.
00:30I've started fishing for plastics. Yesterday I went to sell the plastic.
00:35Unfortunately today I'm late, I won't have much, but on the other days I came off the river with my
00:41pirogue full of plastic.
00:43Yesterday I sold plastic for over 26 euros.
00:47According to the government figures, around 60,000 tons of fish are taken annually from the Congo,
00:52which flows more than 4,300 kilometers east to west through the huge Central African country.
00:57But in recent years, fishermen on the housecastle, the Kinshasa, have noticed their catches dwindling.
01:03Back then, there really were a lot of fish. In a single day I could catch 70 big fish.
01:08But now it's either just one fish or nothing at all.
01:11But if you compare this side of the river, which is in the city center, with other places like Kinkole,
01:18there are still fish over there because of water is deeper.
01:21There are rocks and there's less pollution as well.
01:24Whereas here in the city center, all the fish have already fled because of the rubbish like disposable nipis, jerrycans
01:30and so on.
01:33The collected plastic is now being recycled in a factory.
01:37Some fishermen say they collect up to 50 kilos of waste a week.
01:42Resigned to their fate, they hope the work will enable their children to go to school and learn a better
01:47trade.
01:50Several former fishermen now collect the rubbish that accumulates in the rails along the swampy banks to sell to recycling
01:57companies.
02:00Kinshasa produces between 700 and 1,000 tons of waste every day.
02:08And less than 20% of this waste is properly treated.
02:14The rest is unfortunately dumped into the Congo River.
02:19In 2017, the DRC passed a law banning the manufacture and import of plastic bags and bottles,
02:25but the regulation remains largely ignored.
02:29Waste collection is virtually in an existence in Kinshasa due to a chronic lack of local authority funding.
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