NAIROBI, July 6 (Xinhuanet) -- A project aimed at eliminating pollution in western Indian Ocean has been announced at a meeting of environment ministers in Madagascan capital Antananarivo, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) said here Tuesday.

¡¡¡¡The three-year project, entitled Addressing Land Based Activities in the Western Indian Ocean Region, covers eight east African countries -- the Comoros, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, the Seychelles, South Africa and Tanzania, the Nairobi-based UNEP said in a press release.

    The project fits into the wider issue of the UN's Millennium Development Goals as they relate to poverty eradication, the provision of drinking water and hunger reduction as well as the environmental component of the New Partnership for Africa's Development and the Plan of Implementation of the World Summit on Sustainable Development.

    The western Indian Ocean is one of the most wildlife-rich regions in the world with important mangrove forests, seagrass beds, lagoons and coral reefs.

    The ocean is thought to hold more than 11,000 species of plantsand animals including such creatures as the dugong, a marine mammal believed to be the inspiration for seafarers tales of mermaids; the coelacanth, a fossil fish and more than a fifth of the world's tropical inshore fish species. It is also home to nesting sites for an estimated 70 percent of the globe's marine turtles.

    Currently, some 30 million people in the four mainland countries of Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa and Tanzania and on the islands of the Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius and the Seychelles, are thought to depend upon the area's marine and coastal resources for food, livelihood and recreation.

    However, in common with many areas of the developing world, thewestern Indian Ocean is suffering as a result of factors includingunplanned urbanization, discharges of untreated sewage, habitat destruction, destructive fishing practices and over-exploitation of resources.

    The new 11 million US dollars' project, implemented by UNEP, will strengthen pollution laws, regulations and cooperation regionally and nationally.

    Measures likely to form part of the national action plans include improving the safe disposal of wastes, improving the site of rubbish tips, developing wetlands to naturally filter and detoxify sewage and improved recycling schemes.

    The project will help the eight countries devise action plans to curb sewage, chemicals and other pollutants coming from the land into the region's rivers and coastal waters, according to UNEP. Enditem