YRE Article 11–14 years old: Honourable Mention
REDUCING LIVESTOCK MORTALITY CAUSED BY HOUSEHOLD PLASTIC WASTE (Morocco)
The city of Casablanca has witnessed a remarkable demographic growth, which has led to the spread of marginal neighborhoods in its suburbs at the detriment of agricultural lands. This has exacerbated the difficulties in collecting household waste that reaches approximately 0.78 kg per person. Plastic waste represents a fifth of this amount, and its random disposal leads to the death of cattle.
WHAT ARE THE REASONS BEHIND THE DEATH OF LIVESTOCK? AND WHAT ARE THE EFFECTIVE SOLUTIONS TO OVERCOME THIS PROBLEM?
In the report, Mr. Zineddine, a sheep breeder, stated that the farmers in Bouskoura, the outskirts of Casablanca, suffer from a problem of the death of sheep, cows and mainly horses, because they eat plastic waste that is thrown or transported by the wind to the pastures adjacent to the villages. In fact, this is due to the lack or delay of the collection of household waste in these neighborhoods. In addition to that, shepherds have recourse to grazing livestock in informal settings, to feed on the remains of vegetables and fruits stuffed inside plastic bags, especially during the fall and winter seasons, when grass is rare.
Mr. Zain Al-Din added that this problem causes farmers significant financial losses, and he also admitted that he himself lost a cow and two sheep this year because of the plastic.
To understand how the animal dies because of the plastic, Karim Al-Hefzi, veterinarian and head of the Center for Animal Protection and Environmental Preservation in Bouskoura, province of Nwaser, said that animals such as sheep, cows and horses resort to eating some materials such as plastic to satidfy their food needs, whether in the pastures or from the garbage containers . After swallowing this material, the latter is not digested, so it takes the form of a ball after being attached to the food fibers. Because the intestines of the herbivore animal are very long, the intestine is not able to excrete it, but the mechanical movements of the intestine make the ball dry bigger and solid, which blocks the passage of excrement and causes the animal’s stomach to become distended, leading to death due to poisoning or intestinal rupture. The doctor added that the center received 580 cases of animal poisoning due to plastic in 2018.
Also, Mr. N S., member of the Cooperation and Environment Council at Nwaser Province, States that the delegated management contract for waste collection services covers all the municipality’s districts, including the douars (small rural villages) pointing out that many of the problems of waste accumulation are also caused by the citizens who use the streets for waste disposal. He added that dealing with the issue of hygiene and waste results in two contradictory phenomena. People want to get rid of their waste as fast as possible, then it is dumped anywhere and at any time, and, at the same time, they do not accept the presence of waste areas.
In order to contribute to reducing livestock deaths caused by household plastic waste, members of the Environmental and Sustainable Development Club organized campaigns to collect plastic waste from agricultural estates near the institution as well as awareness-raising campaigns urging the farmers to keep livestock away from and garbage places and containers and to detect the symptoms, namely the lack of quantity animal feces and loss of appetite for early detection and rescue. The campaign also included some inhabitants of the douar, reminding them of the 77. 15 Law that prohibits manufacturing, importing, exporting, marketing and using plastic bags, as well as raising their awareness of the risks of plastics to health and the environment in general and to livestock in particular. In addition, they urged them to choose recyclable plastic and to collect it for resale after use, as well as collecting leftovers of vegetables and fruits in bags and paper Instead of plastic. The club members also requested the communal councilor of the municipality of Bouskoura to raise the frequency of waste collection from the douars adjacent to farms at least three times a week..
To put into practice the national program for household waste prepared by the Secretary of State responsible for sustainable development and the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Economy and Finance will reduce the problem of animal deaths due to household plastic waste, and the solution of the problem remains dependent on the citizen’s awareness of the risks of plastic waste on the environment and the national economy and building this awareness requires concerted efforts of educators, media workers, civil society associations and agricultural guidance.
A picture of a herd feeding on garbage, taken in one of the centers of Bouskoura:
Image showing a large amount of plastic extracted from the intestines of a horse after surgery performed at the Animal Welfare Association in Bouskoura:
A picture of the campaign to clean adjacent pastures from plastic waste, organized by the Environmental and Sustainable Development Club:
