Ecosystem Restoration Kenya Project #54689

Clean a river in Migingo & stop plastic pollution

by Smart Villages Foundation

Summary

This project will clean up a polluted, refuse and plastic-filled stretch of the Mathare river in central Nairobi, Kenya, transforming what is currently a dumping ground for garbage into an urban garden where the community can meet, children can play safely, and where the community can grow vegetables to help their food security and livelihoods. This will also remove this garbage from the river system, allowing plastic and other items to be recycled instead of washing down into the Indian Ocean.

$15,000
total goal

$12,923
remaining

11
donors

0
monthly donors

3
years

Challenge

Nairobi's Migingo slum is overcrowded and has no community facilities for people to get together, or for children to play. Since it also has no garbage disposal facilities, for years, residents have been throwing their garbage way into the Mathare River, and its river banks, below the slum. Consequently this land and the river are very polluted and choked with refuse, which is not only a hazard to health, but also the garbage and pollution eventually find their way downstream to the Indian Ocean

Solution

Members of the Migingo community have banded together to form the Greener Life community association, in order to try to clean up the river alongside the Migingo slum, and clean up the river bank and turn it into a beautiful community garden and vegetable growing area, where the whole community can hold gathering, relax, and where children can play safely away from traffic and pollution. This project will support Greener Life and our other partners in Kenya to carry out this work.

Long-Term Impact

This project will provide a lasting community facility for the many 1000s of residents of Migingo to enjoy, and for their children to play in. By supporting them to set up garbage collection services and craft workshops in the space, to recycle some of the garbage, it will provide sustainable employment opportunities for the long term. And the clean up operation on the river will create more sanitary conditions for the slum residents as well as preventing more pollution reaching the ocean.