The beaches of Watamu and Malindi are getting cleaner and cleaner thanks to the initiatives of the community but also to the commitment of many hoteliers who have taken, if not anticipated, the new course of Kenya towards the elimination of plastic and against pollution of the Indian Ocean.
In Watamu, this is the case of the Barracuda Resort, which for nine years now has been keeping an entire bay clean, thanks also to the collaboration with local beach operators and to the awareness of its tourists.
But in the last season the owner Giuseppe Bonasera has combined good environmental habits with an effective stunt that involves more people staying in his village and is at the same time choreographic.
"My passion for animals - says Bonasera - led me to buy two camels. Far from me making it an attraction for tourists, but I thought they could be useful as transport, as well as how they are used throughout Africa. So I decided to combine our daily cleaning of our part of Watamu beach with their contribution.
The camels have been equipped with large baskets and every day they are ready to cross the bay far and wide and have them filled, until they reach an average of 150 kilos per day of plastic of all kinds.
"The Barracuda has 186 employees - explains the owner - we have put on payroll five more that every day, except Sunday, take the camels for a walk and clean the beach. Our guests are attracted to this activity thanks to unusual and ecological helpers and often join the walk, helping to keep the beach tidy. All this is part of our "plastic free" policy that is taking shape with the elimination of straws and the replacement of plastic mineral water bottles with glass ones, thanks to the collaboration with a Kenyan company".
The hope is that the good example of Barracuda in Watamu will be followed by other hotels, certainly a precise address has been given.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator