Sandwatch Most Significant Change Stories: 2017 Cape Verde
Submitted by Elsa Fontes, Sandwatch Coordinator, Cape Verde Ministry of Education
As Coordinator of this Sandwatch Project for the Salineiro Secondary School, I check every activity we do on the beaches we have visited, because we are increasingly aware that protecting and preserving the environment is an important contribution to the balance of the ecosystem and our health. We need guidance in this country on environmental education, because if we continue on this path, we will be increasingly exposed to the perils of unstable Nature. One of the most practical things we can today is work on Sandwatch using its methodologies and teach these things to our students.
Using Sandwatch research we will suggest a set of measures that may be needed to solve the problems of Praia do Caniço and make it more resilient, beautiful and attractive. The following are some of the things we doing to achieve these goals based upon Sandwatch practices.
• An urgent cleaning campaign for the removal of all trash that is on the perimeter of the beach. We are doing this with the contribution of the Municipality of Ribeira Grande de Santiago (Sanitation, Tourism and Culture Pelouros), the Salineiro Secondary School (and it’s Sandwatch team) and the Health Office of RGS.
• Sensitization of bathers who go to the beach to avoid littering on the beach. By informing them of the many consequences it can have on the environment and public health.
• Construction of a gate that prevents the run off floods from heavy rains reaching the beach with a high intensity thus avoiding the garbage that is dragged to the seafront.
• Protection of slopes via planting trees and shrubs to prevent landslides of dirt ad stones to fall onto the sand.
• Planting of trees and improvements of the trees/vegetation that exist in and around the beaches with the intention of giving more attractiveness and shade to the beach areas
• Increase the number of containers for garbage on the beach for bathers, where the sanitation services of the local authority can collect them regularly, thus avoiding the accumulation of garbage.
• Avoid leaving scraps of fish, other foodstuff and trash on the ground and make stakeholders aware of the proper use of the containers.
• Beach safety should also be enhanced as our beach is fairly isolated; it would be desirable if possible to have lifeguards and a look-out post so that swimmers can feel safer.
Salineiro, May 24, 2017
As Coordinator of this Sandwatch Project for the Salineiro Secondary School, I check every activity we do on the beaches we have visited, because we are increasingly aware that protecting and preserving the environment is an important contribution to the balance of the ecosystem and our health. We need guidance in this country on environmental education, because if we continue on this path, we will be increasingly exposed to the perils of unstable Nature. One of the most practical things we can today is work on Sandwatch using its methodologies and teach these things to our students.
Using Sandwatch research we will suggest a set of measures that may be needed to solve the problems of Praia do Caniço and make it more resilient, beautiful and attractive. The following are some of the things we doing to achieve these goals based upon Sandwatch practices.
• An urgent cleaning campaign for the removal of all trash that is on the perimeter of the beach. We are doing this with the contribution of the Municipality of Ribeira Grande de Santiago (Sanitation, Tourism and Culture Pelouros), the Salineiro Secondary School (and it’s Sandwatch team) and the Health Office of RGS.
• Sensitization of bathers who go to the beach to avoid littering on the beach. By informing them of the many consequences it can have on the environment and public health.
• Construction of a gate that prevents the run off floods from heavy rains reaching the beach with a high intensity thus avoiding the garbage that is dragged to the seafront.
• Protection of slopes via planting trees and shrubs to prevent landslides of dirt ad stones to fall onto the sand.
• Planting of trees and improvements of the trees/vegetation that exist in and around the beaches with the intention of giving more attractiveness and shade to the beach areas
• Increase the number of containers for garbage on the beach for bathers, where the sanitation services of the local authority can collect them regularly, thus avoiding the accumulation of garbage.
• Avoid leaving scraps of fish, other foodstuff and trash on the ground and make stakeholders aware of the proper use of the containers.
• Beach safety should also be enhanced as our beach is fairly isolated; it would be desirable if possible to have lifeguards and a look-out post so that swimmers can feel safer.
Salineiro, May 24, 2017