Nile Basin Macroplastic Monitoring Training Material

Background

Plastic pollution in freshwater systems is a growing threat to ecosystems, public health, and livelihoods—both globally and in the Nile Basin. While microplastics often dominate attention, macroplastics are more visible, easier to monitor, and provide a practical entry point for action.

Through the Marine Debris Framework – Regional Hubs around the Globe (Marine: Defrag) programme, supported by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Climate Protection, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMUKN), resources are being mobilized to address plastic pollution. As one of the regional hubs, the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) is working to enhance understanding of plastic pollution in the Nile Basin. This forms part of a five-year action plan to establish a basin-wide macroplastic monitoring programme aligned with NBI’s strategic objectives.

Training Material Overview

A hands-on training workshop was held from 10–13 February in Kisumu, Kenya, bringing together around 30 participants. The training combined theory and practice, introducing simple, robust methods suitable for experts and citizen scientists alike.

The course as well as the training material provided here covers two widely used macroplastic monitoring methods:

1. Visual Counting – observers count and classify floating macroplastics (e.g., bottles, bags) from a fixed point such as a bridge, over a set time interval (e.g., 10 minutes).
2. Bank Surveys – observers walk along predefined riverbank or lakeshore transects, recording the number, type, and size of macroplastics within a designated area.

These materials provide the essential guidance to implement the methods and design macroplactic monitoring programmes.