Diagnosis on waste management in Gambia and Senegal
| Subject: International Cooperation, Waste
Pilot projects to promote and strengthen sound waste management
The metropolitan areas of Banjul (in Gambia) and Dakar (in Senegal) will host two pilot projects on integrated waste management under a metropolitan approach. These actions will fall into the scope of AMB's International Development Cooperation Master Plan and were agreed upon after a visit by representatives of the AMB's cooperation service and waste management area to West Africa last July.
Waste management poses a major challenge in both countries. Among the most notable factors are: insufficient waste collection; poor management of the numerous landfills and dumpsters; lack of recycling and lack of management of organic waste; insufficient infrastructures and collection strategies; presence of informal waste pickers working in precarious and unsafe conditions, etc. The combination of these issues lead to important safety and health issues.
The social, economic and environmental challenges caused by these situations can only be be dealt with in a coordinated manner with the sum of resources and strategies of the different municipalities that make up the metropolitan regions. The AMB will implement both pilot projects to foster and strengthen the proper urban waste management under an intermunicipal coordination approach, based on its own experience.
In Senegal, a visit by the head of the international cooperation service and a waste management specialist from the AMB enabled an initial diagnosis on Rufisque, in the Dakar region. To this end, the delegation from the AMB, together with a member of the (CASC), met with representatives of the Rufisque intercommunality (composed of 4 municipalities), with government representatives, with the region's Waste Management Unit, as well as with private entities and members of the organized civil society interested in changing the situation.
Coordinated cooperation in Gambia with the Catalan municipalities of Torrelles de Llobregat and Santa Coloma de Cervelló
Besides the above-mentioned pilot project that will be implemented in Gambia, the municipalities of Santa Coloma de Cervelló and Torrelles de Llobregat,are currently working in a coordinated cooperation project in the field of waste management with a rights-based approach, in the Gambian municipality of Tujereng. Both projects were approved at the AMB's 2018-2019 call for proposals and count on the technical and financial support from the AMB.
Early July, representatives of both municipalities and AMB's cooperation service visited the area to monitor and develop various activities in the territory. Aiming at finding a sustainable waste management model, a GIS system was used to obtain domestic generation data and to map the points of uncontrolled dumpsites. They also worked on the creation of a community composting space, promoted by women's groups with the aim of improving the management of the Organic Fraction of Municipal Waste in the area.
Additionally, a student from the Degree in Ocean Sciences at the University of Barcelona (UB) worked on an ecosystematic diagnosis of the Tujereng coastline, an area of high ecological value. This study will determine the environmental impact on natural spaces derived from human activities such as beach restaurants, fishing, sand extraction, construction and other leisure activities.