KINSHASA, DR Congo (AFP) — The mighty Congo River feeds millions of people along its course through the vast Democratic Republic of Congo but fishermen near the capital now find more plastic than fish in their nets.

Some have even ditched fishing altogether because it is more profitable to sell the plastic waste they trawl out of the river, the world’s second-most powerful watercourse after the Amazon.

According to government figures, around 60,000 tons of fish are taken annually from the Congo, which flows for more than 4,300 kilometers east to west through the huge central African country.

But in recent years, fishermen on the outskirts of Kinshasa have noticed their catches dwindling.

“A few years ago, I used to catch big fish like captains and catfish but because of the pollution, they’ve moved further out to sea,” fisherman Gilby Mwana-Fioti told Agence France-Presse.

Since dawn, he and around 20 colleagues have paddled along the riverbanks in their weathered wooden canoes.

The catch is meager — small fish, lots of plastic bottles and too many used nappies.

“We’ll end up disappearing,” said Willy Ngepa, who has been a fisherman for more than 40 years in the DRC, one of the poorest countries in the world.

Alarming pollution levels

Kinshasa, an overcrowded city of more than 17 million people, churns out at least 10 tons of plastic waste every day, according to environmental experts.

Empty plastic bottles pile up on the kerbs of its potholed streets.

The rubbish gets into the watercourses that criss-cross the capital and, from there, finds its way into the Congo River where it harms wildlife and pollutes the water.

According to a study in 2023 by the University of Kinshasa, plastic waste exposed to sunlight breaks down into microplastics, which are then ingested by fish, affecting their growth and reproductive success and sometimes leading to death.

The microplastics ultimately accumulate in the food chain, harming humans and other creatures that eat the fish.

The waste can also clog the aquatic vegetation where the fish would feed and breed, and contaminate the water on which they depend.

“Plastic pollution has reached alarming levels,” said Vincent Kunda, head of Kongo River, a non-government organization which raises awareness of the scourge.

“Less than 20 percent of waste is processed,” he continued.

In 2017, the DRC passed a law banning the manufacture and import of plastic bags and bottles but the regulation remains largely ignored.

Waste collection is virtually non-existent in Kinshasa, due to a chronic lack of local authority funding.