James Kateeba, former tour guide in Luzira, Uganda, has created a beautiful, eco-friendly passenger vessel using plastic waste bottles. His creation was a combined effort to clean the waste in Lake Victoria and show the world an eco-friendly alternative for creating floating vessels by recycling waste. Also, the boat could be an example of a sustainable business like a floating restaurant and bar that could be unmoored to drift for pleasure.
The vessel was anchored using cords attached to the mainland. Its base consists of more than ten tonnes of plactic. Its capacity is 100 to 120 people. Making this boat even more eco-friendly, fish have found a breeding ground under the vessel.
James Kateeba started building the boat in 2017 to somehow solve the problem of what to do with tonnes of plastic waste ending up in Lake Victoria when it rains heavily. The plastic bottles end up in beaches nearby due to monsoons. Seeing this, Kateeba asked fishermen to collect them for him for a small fee. In a matter of six months, more than ten tonnes of plastic were delivered to him. As the bottles were tied up in fishing nets and packed with dirt, a solid mass was created.
Bottles get into Lake Victoria from runoff water, like when it rains. Most times actually it is runoff water that is not properly managed from the mainland they end up in the lake and at times people just throw them carelessly as they go to their day-by-day work.
Africa’s Lake Victoria, the world’s second-largest freshwater lake. It spans three countries, Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania plagued by pollution including runoff waste, sand mining and a decline in water levels in part due to climate change.
