Activist on 30-beach anti-litter march
Print Edition
Bin bags at the ready, “long-distance activist” Mohamed Oussama Houij moves methodically along a beach in Tunisia’s Mediterranean town of Nabeul, scooping up all kinds of trash as he goes along.
The 27-year-old sanitary engineer set out in July to walk a 300-kilometer stretch of coastline in Tunisia and clean 30 beaches along the way.
He hopes the two-month trek will help convince authorities, holidaymakers and average Tunisians alike that the sea should not be used as a garbage pit.
With a sturdy pair of boots and a hat to shield him from the summer sun, Houij began his journey in the central coastal city of Mahdia and plans to finish in Solimane, 40 kilometers from the capital Tunis.
The trip will take him through crowded hotspots like Daar Chaabane in Nabeul, but also secluded coves and shores.
“I believe in citizen mobilization and I chose to act... and to raise awareness about the problem of pollution on our beaches,” the activist said.
The Facebook page of his campaign has more than 13,000 followers and is entirely independent, he boasted.
But while Houij may be a dreamer, he is also realistic.
“The 300 Kilometers action is not really about cleaning ... I know I’m just a drop of water in the ocean,” he said.
“I want to raise public awareness and get people thinking: ‘Wait, it’s not normal, all these bottles, these caps ... all these plastic bags’.”
Since Tunisia’s 2011 revolution, the proliferation of waste has steadily worsened across the country — in big cities, rural areas and beaches alike.
One contributing factor has been the absence of elected municipal councils.
Between the fall in 2011 of longtime dictator Ben Ali and local polls held in May 2018, town halls were managed by “special delegations” that often neglected issues like littering and waste management.
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