In Senegal, PROMOGED as a response to the colossal challenge of waste management

The Project for the Promotion of Integrated Management and Economy of Solid Waste (Promoged) was officially launched on Thursday, June 24 at Mbeubeuss, a giant landfill in the commune of Malika, on the outskirts of Dakar.

It is an open-air landfill, at the gates of Dakar: the Mbeubeuss site, opened in 1968, has become an ecological and sanitary hell. With Promoged, it will be cleaned up and gradually rehabilitated thanks to the installation of a waste sorting and composting unit. This is the first step in a vast program financed by the State and donors to improve public health. Eventually, the project aims to create 150 waste treatment facilities in 138 communes and is expected to generate 3,000 jobs.

"The landfill will cease to be a source of threat and become a niche of opportunity," said Talla Gadiaga, mayor of the commune of Malika.

Mbeubeuss, and eventually the regions of Thiès, Saint Louis, Matam, Ziguinchor, Sédhiou and Kolda are to be covered by Promoged. Total cost of the project: 314 million euros, i.e. 206 billion CFA francs, of which 163 billion are financed by donors, the World Bank, Spanish cooperation, the European Investment Bank and the French Development Agency. President Macky Sall's stated objective: a "zero waste Senegal".

"The Promoged will thus contribute to the eradication of illegal dumps, which are harmful to the environment, the health of populations, economic activities and the attractiveness of our cities.

An ambitious project, which also raises concerns: in a tribune, the National Confederation of Senegalese Workers and the NGO Wiego call for a more "inclusive and transparent" process to protect the 2000 or so "reclaimers" who work in the Mbeubeuss landfill.

Dakar, Charlotte Idrac, Rfi.fr