According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), environmental sanitation causes more than 12.6 million deaths per year, a figure that is expected to rise dramatically in the coming years due to the population boom in Africa. Cities in sub-Saharan Africa remain overwhelmed by the explosion of increasing volumes of waste to be collected and treated. A better understanding of waste is needed.
The use of waste collection companies and even the introduction of so-called « clean days » seem insufficient to solve the waste problem in sub-Saharan African cities. Despite a volume of waste produced per capita that remains the lowest in the world (0.46 kg per capita per day, compared to 0.81 kg/capita in North Africa, according to the World Bank), cities in sub-Saharan Africa are struggling to effectively collect the waste produced by city dwellers. Their average collection rates are low, rarely above 60%, and yet according to the World Bank, the current quantities of waste are expected to triple by 2050.
Hence the urgent need for decision-makers, governments and local authorities, to establish a better waste management model in partnership with all the many players in the sector (local and foreign companies, associations and citizens). During the forum on « Municipal waste management in Africa: the case of Cameroon », organised on 5 October 2021 by Pollutec, the experts recommended a paradigm shift, so that waste would no longer be considered as worthless materials, but as resources to be valorised in order to derive useful economic and health benefits for all.
Selective sorting
This ideal requires the implementation of real waste recovery projects, efficient collection and sorting systems, the construction of new infrastructures, the modernisation of old ones, the sensitisation of the population to good practices in household waste management (selective sorting), the creation of jobs in the hygiene and cleanliness sector, etc.
The paradigm shift in waste management in sub-Saharan Africa is all the more important because it is urgent. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), environmental insalubrity causes more than 12.6 million deaths per year, a figure that is expected to rise dramatically in the coming years due to the demographic boom in Africa.
Fanta Mabo
