New Year’s beach parties leave huge mess

HEAPS of burnt-out metal, broken glass, plastic bags, cans, human faeces and other rubbish strewn along Walvis Bay and Swakopmund’s popular beaches, in Damara Tern breeding areas and at the Swakop River lagoon were the aftermath of the two main New Year’s parties at
the coast.

During a special meeting under the direction of the Namibian Coast Conservation and Management Project (Nacoma) at Long Beach yesterday, feedback was given on how the environment along the coast was affected during the festive season. Although beach parties as such were not condemned, there was much concern about the mess these parties caused and the indifference of the organisers and party-goers to cleaning up afterwards. Along the three-kilometre stretch of shoreline at Long Beach, and at the Swakop River Mouth, thousands of holidaymakers gathered to enjoy beach parties with live music, fireworks and huge bonfires – and large quantities of alcohol. The first day of 2009 showed ‘footprint highways’ from the beach into protected Damara Tern breeding areas at Long Beach, which party-goers treated as outdoors toilets. The Swakop River Lagoon, an important bird sanctuary, also ended up as a refuse heap of plastic bags and beverage cans. Broken glass lay strewn over and under the sand. Huge bonfires at both venues, seen from kilometres away, caused much excitement among New Year’s revellers.But at Long Beach the Ministry of Environment had the daunting task of cleaning up the twisted, smouldering metal that formed the backbone of the bonfire. On the first day of the year, Ministry officials said they picked up 4 100 nails in and around the ashes. ‘We lost count. They really burned a lot of stuff there,’ said one official at the meeting. Local Ministry officers initially ordered the party organisers to move the party further south, but had to back down in the face of vehement protests from the organisers and high-ranking Ministry officials. At the Swakop River Mouth, the mess was no different. People just did not take Ministry officials seriously when requested to clean up afterwards. In the end the Ministry did the dirty work, with the assistance of local businessman Quinton Liebenberg who owns the nearby Tiger Reef Beach Bar. The team managed to fill hundreds of bags of litter.