Collecting Plastic Waste Against Climate Change-Induced Flooding in Cameroon
Coeur d'Afrique is paying young people to collect plastic litter, which is clogging rivers and blocking gutters. Cameroon's capital has seen some of its worst flooding on record in the past two years.
Retired Cameroonian footballer Roger Milla is already famous for being the oldest goal scorer – at age 42 – in World Cup history. And now the footballer is proving an unlikely hero in Cameroon's struggle against climate change-related flooding.
A project by his organization Coeur d'Afrique (Heart of Africa), which aids abandoned children, is helping lessen the damage to the country's flood-prone political capital while also fighting youth unemployment – all by just picking up some plastic.
Over the past two years, Yaoundé's population of over 3 million has suffered some of the worst flooding on record. But nature isn't solely to blame, say experts. Part of the problem is the plastic waste clogging up rivers and blocking gutters.
Rusty Clark