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Ubiquitous Presence of Microplastics (MPs): A Review of Occurrence, Abundances, Spatial Distribution and Future Effects in the Surface Waters, Kenya
Summary
This review examines the occurrence, abundances, spatial distribution, and potential future impacts of microplastics in surface waters across Kenya, synthesizing available research on plastic pollution in freshwater and marine systems following Kenya's 2018 single-use plastic ban. The paper highlights the growing body of research on microplastic pathways and accumulation in Kenyan water bodies and identifies knowledge gaps requiring further monitoring.
Plastics pollution has slowly become a global concern over the years due to the worldwide technological trends in production and consumption of plastic products and materials. Surface water of natural water bodies, man-made waterways and other inter-connected reservoirs provides wide and extensive network of routes for the uncontrolled disposal and dispersal of macro and microplastics (MPs). There is a growing concern on the negative impacts from plastic-associated waste and litter in both marine and freshwater systems. Microplastics are defined as plastic (primary or secondary) materials of size less than 5000µm. Kenya issued a nationwide ban on single use plastics in 2018 and the EU issued a ban on the same, in 2019. As a result, there is a growing research in understanding the scale of the microplastics in the environment, with relatively more data documented for marine than freshwater ecosystems, yet both act as active conduits of different types of MP’s. Several government and community initiatives are geared towards removal of litter along waterways and beaches and ensure control of plastic pollution by involvement of all stakeholders. However, less information is documented from specific ecosystems studies and environmental samples, on the types of MPs, their environmental concentrations, and the potential effects and relationships with environmental factors. Recent documented studies have focused on the coastal marine waters, and only a few studies on the diverse small and large inland aquatic ecosystems. Therefore, this review provides documented data on MPs occurrences, abundances, spatial distribution in Kenyan aquatic ecosystems, with an overall target of creating more informed stakeholders on the plastic litter menace in aquatic environments and the potential ecological effects of MPs for developing better future risk assessments. Future studies on MPs should be targeted on gaps identified to develop action plans and solutions towards effective control and eradication