Kinshasa, June 8th, 2025 (ACP) – The accumulation of poorly managed plastics is harmful to health and can hamper a society’s development, an environmentalist told CPA on Saturday in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
‘The accumulation of plastics is harmful to health, particularly through the release of harmful chemicals, the ingestion of micro-plastics, and exposure to toxic chemicals in the environment’, said Pierre Albert Ngueliele, an environmentalist. According to him, this pollution can lead to the ingestion of micro-plastics via contaminated drinking water, posing potential risks to human health. Plastics can also contain toxic chemicals that are found in the environment and can also end up in the food chain. ‘To deal with this problem, a national sanitation policy needs to be drawn up to identify the players involved, define the mechanism for inter-institutional collaboration, the interactions between the central government and the decentralized territorial entities (ETD), and the funding mechanism, in compliance with the international laws and commitments of the Democratic Republic of Congo’, he continued.
The expert pointed out that the provincial city of Kinshasa, with its 15 million inhabitants, generates large quantities of plastics and micro-plastics as a result of poor management of solid and liquid waste, and the exclusive production of plastic packaging, bottles and bags. He pointed out that this situation is exacerbated by a lack of awareness of the need to protect the environment and the consequences for health, ecosystems and the economy.
‘We need to raise public awareness, promote the use of alternative materials and encourage recycling’, he concluded. Mr Ngueliele was speaking on the sidelines of World Environment Day (WED), which is celebrated every year on June 5th. The aim of the day is to raise public awareness of environmental issues and encourage positive action for the planet. WED was launched by the United Nations in 1972, to coincide with the opening of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm. It highlights a different major environmental issue each year.