In recent times, visitors to the Danakil have been shocked by the amount of plastic rubbish on the sides of the volcano. The hots springs at Dallol are much the same. Litter gets blown by the wind, ending up being strewn over the salt flats and is difficult to retrieve.
A team of 12 tour operators recently clubbed together and decided to do something about the matter. They raised a small sum of money and approached the Afar Tourism board with the intention of providing a cage where plastic refuse can be held before being recycled.
Unbeknown to them at the time, Tourism Ethiopia, the country’s marketing organisation for the promotion of the country was also thinking along similar lines. A tourism conference held in Semera at the end of April was quickly morphed into an environmental conference as tour operators and delegates from the Ministry of Foreign affairs embraced the idea of a cleanup and fresh approach to plastic waste.
Plans are now in place to possibly ban single-use plastics altogether from all national parks and protected areas. The tour operators realise that they have other options than to use plastic bottles. The Simien Lodge currently distributes aluminium water bottles to clients so that they can fill them with fresh mountain spring water. Very few tourists now insist on buying water in plastic bottles. The group hope that the government will add momentum to the initiative and that this approach to plastic waste will ultimately spread to other sectors of society.
An Ethiopia clean of plastic waste may seem an ambitious target but many in the tourism sector now believe that it is not impossible.
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