On World Environment Day, Jamie Williams, Islamic Relief’s Senior Policy Advisor on Poverty Reduction, discusses the dangers of plastic pollution in the world’s oceans and the need for large companies to be held accountable for the plastic waste they produce.

This World Environment Day, Islamic Relief is signing Faith in the Ocean, an international multifaith declaration recognising the profound relationship between humanity and the ocean, uniting all people of faith or spiritual tradition in our commitment to protect and preserve the ocean.

Among the many concerns about our oceans is pollution from plastic waste.

Driven by public concern about plastic pollution and increasing scientific evidence of the resulting harm to human health and the environment, the United Nations in 2022 convened an Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee, INC, to produce international laws to control plastic pollution. This included the 10-15 million tonnes of plastic leaking into the marine environment each year – a number expected to more than triple by 2050.

Plastic drives climate change

Plastic pollution, including micro – and nano – plastics, has been found at the Earth’s highest heights and the ocean’s deepest depths. It is creating an ever-growing health crisis, with ‘forever’ chemicals in plastic products and waste leaching into the human body and the natural environment, creating havoc for hormone, digestive, and nervous systems. In 2022 there were reports of plastic particles found in human lungs and blood, and a 2021 report found microplastics in human placenta.

Discussions at the fifth session of INC-5 in November last year were meant to reach a new agreement to end plastic pollution. They didn’t. As we wait for the meeting to restart this year, the mountain of pollution, which grows through the whole life cycle of plastic, continues to grow and wreck to our environment and our bodies.

Plastic production relies on oil, making corporate plastic use a direct driver of climate change. Progress towards a treaty on plastic pollution has been hindered by a row over the need to include cuts to the $712 billion (approx. £610 billion) plastic production industry in the treaty. 

At previous talks, high-income countries were accused of bowing to pressure from fossil fuel companies and industry lobbyists to steer clear of any reductions in production. Instead, they argued that reducing pollution is a question of how the plastic is made and what happens after it is sold and used.

Coca-Cola, the world’s top branded plastic waste producer, acknowledged in 2022 that reusable packaging was “among the most effective ways to reduce waste” and committed to a goal of reaching 25% reusable packaging by 2030.

But that pledge was quietly dropped in its latest sustainability roadmap, released in December 2024. The company’s updated goals instead focus on increasing recycled content in packaging and boosting collection rates – while stressing the significant challenges in recycling soda bottles and shifting consumer habits.

Shifting the blame

Environmental advocates have long warned against over-reliance on recycling, arguing that it often serves to shift blame on to consumers rather than addressing the root of the crisis

By 2030, Coca-Cola products will account for an estimated 602 million kilograms of plastic waste entering the world’s oceans and waterways each year, according to a stark new analysis published by the non-profit Oceana.

That is enough plastic to fill the stomachs of 18 million blue whales.

Food and beverage companies are disproportionately large polluters. Coca-Cola, followed by PepsiCo, Nestlé, Danone and Altria, and other companies have been identified as producing 50% of the plastics polluting the environment.

Brand names can be used to hold plastic companies accountable for their items found polluting the oceans. Phasing out single-use and short-lived plastic products by the largest polluters would greatly reduce global plastic pollution.

We can all take a look at our own habits and refrain from purchasing plastic packaged food and drinks. Bottled water is often just tap water in plastic. Each soda, juice or yoghurt will add to the plastic mountain. Together, we can put pressure on the brands to change their policies.

And this World Environment Day, we should be aware of international efforts to eliminate this deadly pollution and urge lawmakers to act in the name of creation, not profit.

We need, as the Faith in the Ocean declaration says, to ensure a healthy, sustainable, and thriving ocean in the web of life for future generations.

In Laba-Adle village, Somalia, Mulki’s days used to revolve around collecting water. Each morning, the 30-year-old would set out before dawn, her feet kicking up dust as she walked 8 kilometres to the nearest water source. When she returned, it would be with just enough water to last her 5 children another day.

But when droughts in her area worsened, Mulki joined the growing number of Somalis forced to buy water in plastic containers from distant towns, watching helplessly as the empty bottles piled up around their village.

“The water kept us alive, but the plastic was choking us,” Mulki says, standing beside the borehole that changed everything for her family.

Mountains of plastic

When drought soaks up natural water sources, people in this climate-vulnerable part of Somalia turn to packaged water – creating mountains of single-use plastics with little or no way to manage the waste.

Islamic Relief’s team saw this firsthand when launching the Building Resilience and Adaptation to Climate Change project in 2023. “We came to address water scarcity,” says project coordinator Abdifatah Adam. “But we quickly realised that we had to tackle 2 crises at once – both the lack of clean water and the growing plastic waste problem.”

The project drilled a new borehole, which did more than provide clean water – it broke the plastic dependency cycle. Where plastic waste once accumulated in toxic piles, the village became noticeably cleaner. And families, who once had to spend their meagre incomes on bottled water, had a little bit more money in their pockets thanks to their new sustainable water source.

A day in the new normal

Mulki’s morning routine has now transformed. At sunrise, she walks just minutes from her home to fill containers at the borehole, while her goats drink deeply from a trough nearby.

“Before, I spent 6 hours each day fetching water,” Mulki says. “Now I have time to milk the goats, sell the milk at market, and still help my children prepare for school.”

Mulki’s husband, Ahmed, tends their new vegetable garden, irrigated with borehole water, another change for the family.

These changes go beyond the family home. At the local market, plastic water bottles are becoming less common as more families gain access to safe, refillable water.  Children now play where plastic waste once littered the ground. Most remarkably, the village has begun repurposing discarded plastic bottles as planters for drought-resistant crops, a grassroots innovation born from necessity.

The bigger picture

Standing by the borehole at dusk, Mulki reflects on how much has changed, and how far there is still to go. “We have water now, but our children need schools,” she says, watching her daughters chase fireflies. “We need healthcare. Better homes.”

These aren’t just development needs – they are the next frontiers in climate resilience. Access to education empowers communities with knowledge to adapt to a changing environment. Reliable healthcare helps families withstand the physical toll of drought, disease and displacement. Safe housing protects against climate extremes. Islamic Relief is already working on solutions that integrate these priorities, recognising that resilience goes beyond water, laying the groundwork for safer and more informed communities.

But for today, in this small village where plastic bottles no longer outnumber trees, there is hope where once there was only thirst.

This World Environment Day 2024, as global attention turns to ‘Ending Plastic Pollution’, This village’s story reveals an uncomfortable truth: our plastic waste crisis often begins where basic needs go unmet. In communities like Mulki’s, plastic water bottles were a desperate solution to the deeper crisis of water scarcity.

The implications are profound. While cleanup efforts remain vital, Somalia’s experience shows that the most effective solution to plastic pollution may lie upstream – quite literally. By addressing the root causes that force communities to rely on disposable plastics, we can stop the problem at its source. Islamic Relief’s borehole project demonstrates this powerfully: where sustainable water systems exist, plastic waste reduces.

As we mark World Environment Day, perhaps our greatest opportunity lies not just in cleaning up plastic waste, but in removing the need for it altogether – one community, one water source at a time.

Mulki’s story shows what’s possible. With your help, we can turn this single borehole’s success into a wave of change. Donate today to support bringing sustainable solutions to more communities, because no mother should have to choose between her family’s survival and the planet’s health.

In the fading light of yet another flooded evening, Rupali faced an impossible but all-too-familiar choice: risk disease by using the collapsed latrine behind her home, or wait for the cover of darkness to find privacy in the open fields. For 26 years, this was the daily reality for villagers in Bhabadaha – a low-lying area in Monirampur subdistrict, near the city of Jashore. The region remains persistently waterlogged due to man-made drainage failures, earning it the name ‘the suffering of Bhabadaha’ – a phrase that captures both the physical hardship and emotional toll of living with constant flooding.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. When engineers in the 1980s built embankments and sluice gates to control seasonal floods in the area, they accidentally created a permanent inland sea. Today, over 1 million people across southwestern Bangladesh navigate life with water lapping at their thresholds. But Rupali’s story isn’t just about rising waters, it’s about inventive solutions, and how a project designed to restore human dignity became a blueprint for environmental resilience.

No respite

Before their land was flooded, Monirampur’s residents’ suffering was only temporary – when the monsoons subsided, the land dried and their latrines were above water again. But after, there was no respite.

“We stopped eating before bedtime,” Rupali says. Her husband, Ajit, says that families rationed meals to minimise bathroom trips. The alternative – using bamboo made hanging structure (Shako)   – risked disease, snake bite, danger and humiliation. Pregnant women, children and elderly people suffered most.

In trying to control nature, humans had created a disaster that stripped away basic dignities. On top of this, plastic waste from makeshift sanitation solutions choked the remaining waterways, damaging the environment.

An innovative solution to a unique problem

When Islamic Relief’s team arrived in Monirampur in 2023, they didn’t bring prefabricated solutions. Instead, they asked, “what would work here?”

The answer emerged through months of collaboration with engineers and villagers – a deceptively simple structure that defied the waters. The climate-smart latrine stood on sturdy pillars, its concrete base rising 2 feet above the highest flood line. A clever gate valve system allows waste to be safely contained when water levels are high and processed when they lower. Equally importantly, the latrine was made using local materials – no plastic sheeting.

For Rupali, the change was immediate. “The first morning I didn’t have to plan my day around finding a private place” she says. “You cannot understand what that freedom means. After 26 years of living with shame and discomfort.”

Ripple effects

What began as 80 latrines has sparked a quiet revolution. Neighbouring villages have now replicated the design, while women’s groups are training others in climate-resilient construction. While Bhabadaha’s long-standing struggle stems from waterlogging caused by failed drainage systems – not plastic pollution – the community’s journey toward adaptation has had unexpected environmental benefits.

As people regained their dignity and stability, they also began addressing other challenges – like plastic waste that once clogged their few remaining waterways. Inspired by Islamic Relief Bangladesh, some villagers have even started making adaptive latrines using recycled rubber materials, reducing reliance on plastic sheeting and demonstrating how small innovations can lead to broader environmental gains.

This World Environment Day, as the world focuses on the theme of ‘Ending Plastic Pollution’, Bhabadaha offers a profound lesson: meaningful environmental solutions must begin with human dignity. Locally led adaptation is the best way of ensuring using local knowledge and skill for problem solution. Giving access to the financial resources vulnerable women can contribute in climate induced problem solving to improve their quality of life, and they’ll seek to protect their environment too.

Your support can help Islamic Relief change the lives of people affected by climate change in Bangladesh and worldwide. Donate today.

The first time I met the young Sudanese woman she was kneeling in the dust outside her makeshift shelter in an IDP camp, her three-year-old daughter limp in her arms. The child’s breathing was shallow, her tiny ribcage pressing against skin stretched taut like parchment. Around them, the camp vibrated with the quiet despair of thousands who had fled here, not for safety, but because there was simply nowhere else to go.

“At home, we ate a half meal in a day,” she told me. “Now, no food at home”

I have worked in humanitarian crises, but what is happening in Sudan today is different. This is not just a food crisis, it is the systematic unravelling of an entire nation. As we mark World Hunger Day, over 25 million Sudanese, half the country, now face acute food insecurity. Of these, 8.5 million stand at the brink of famine. These aren’t abstract numbers.

The anatomy of a man-made crisis

Sudan’s descent into hunger is no accident of nature. It is the direct consequence of more than two years of brutal war, compounded by international indifference. In many cities, where vibrant markets once bustled with traders, food warehouses now stand bombed-out, looted, and empty. In Al Jazirah, Sudan’s former breadbasket, the armed groups burned their fields and stole their harvests at gunpoint.

The war has shattered every system that might have mitigated this crisis. Inflation has soared beyond 350%, rendering a family’s life savings worthless against the price of a single meal. Banks are non-functional in many areas in the country.  Hospitals have run out of medicines and supplies.

The children we are losing

One of the most devastating realities we are observing now, hunger is quietly taking its toll, and time is running out. The conflict continues and children are the most vulnerable and victims.  16 million children across Sudan are in urgent need of humanitarian aid, among them, 3.9 million is suffering from acute malnutrition, and they are struggling for survival. If there is no urgent action, countless children in Sudan will remain at serious risk before the year’s end.

The silence of the international community

What shocks me most is not the scale of suffering, but the world’s muted response.

While other crises dominate headlines, Sudan’s agony unfolds in the shadows. The UN’s $4.2 billion humanitarian appeal for Sudan remains less than 20% funded. While the need is very high and people are suffering from hunger, the international community is silent on raising funds for Sudan.

The truth is uncomfortable but clear: Sudan’s suffering is being measured against other crises and found wanting. Twenty-four aid workers have been killed here since the war began, more than in any other active conflict this year. Yet there are no emergency summits, no urgent UN resolutions. Just silence.

What must be done

First, we need humanitarian access.  The UN Security Council must move beyond statements and enforce the unimpeded delivery of aid. Starvation cannot be permitted as a weapon of war.

Second, the funding gap must be closed, not next year, not next month, but now. The math is stark: $1.5 billion could feed six million Sudanese for six months. To put that in perspective, it’s less than the global cosmetics industry earns in 36 hours.

Finally, we must plan for the day after. Even if peace came tomorrow, Sudan’s farms are ruined, its economy shattered. Recovery will require seeds, tools, and years of sustained investment. But first, we must ensure there are people left to recover.

A final question

On World Hunger Day, we are reminded that hunger in Sudan is not due to a natural disaster; it is due to the current conflict. The question is not whether we can stop Sudan’s starvation, but whether we will choose to.

The world knows what is happening here. The only thing left to determine is whether it cares.

Islamic Relief has been working in Sudan since 1984, providing emergency relief, healthcare, food and shelter to vulnerable communities. Despite the dangers, our teams remain committed to serving those in need.

Please support our life-saving work by donating to our International Emergency today.