The citizens' collective #Savetheblu is sounding the alarm and calling for a national wake-up call: the Mauritian ocean is dying.
A silent but devastating ecological crisis is at work. For years, land-based pollution - from construction sites, failing sewage systems and intensive agriculture - has been exacerbating the degradation of marine ecosystems. These multiple pressures, often absent from local political debates, are making corals, fish stocks and lagoon water quality more fragile by the day.
According to #Savetheblu, construction activities represent one of the most immediate threats. All over the island, subdivisions, real estate projects and public infrastructures generate large quantities of sediment and waste. Some of this waste ends up in waterways and lagoons. The consequences are dramatic: coral and marine habitats destroyed, biodiversity seriously impoverished. Although laws exist to regulate the management of construction waste, their application remains largely inadequate.
But beyond these identified sources of pollution, #Savetheblu wants to broaden our thinking: in an island like Mauritius, every community and every citizen is linked to the ocean. Even those who live far from the coast have a direct or indirect influence on marine health. The organization reminds us that the ocean is much more than a tourist asset: it's a vital resource, a larder, an economic lung. To destroy it is to condemn the entire nation to poverty and instability.
The municipal elections represent a decisive opportunity. For the collective, it's urgent that voters ask candidates the right questions:
What will you do to protect our lagoons?
How do you intend to supervise construction work in your commune? Do you have a plan to improve sanitation?
Will you support sustainable agricultural practices?
The time for speeches is over. What's needed are concrete, visible, measurable actions.
The collective insists: for over twenty years, experts have been warning of the collapse of our marine ecosystems. And yet, responses have remained timid, if not non-existent.
Today, we are approaching a point of no return.
If nothing is done, it's not just the corals that will die, but also the jobs linked to fishing, tourism and local crafts. The entire Mauritian economy will suffer, with direct consequences.
