Overview
Senegal has a surface area of 196712 km2 with about 2.1% of the surface area being filled with water. The country is located in the western part of mainland Africa and borders Mauritania, Guinea Conakry, and Guinea Bissau to the north, east, and south respectively. Senegal is a democratic and decentralized republic with three branches of government: the executive, legislative, and judiciary.
The climate is tropical with two seasons, the dry season from November to May and the wet season from June to October. The average annual rainfall follows a decreasing gradient from 1,200 mm in the south to 300 mm in the north, with variations from one year to another. The country´s water resources are formed by four rivers and their tributaries as well as several seasonal rivers.
Rapid growth in the Senegalese population especially in large cities like Dakar has led to a significant rise in the production of household waste. The government of Senegal and its environmental agencies are working to improve the environmental management of industrial waste and to prevent the illegal transportation of hazardous waste. Environmental and health risks are caused by the inadequate and unreliable services offered by waste management systems.
Projects
The Africa Environmental Health and Pollution Management Project is a five-year Global Environment Facility sixth framework funded project in five African countries notably; Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Ghana, and Senegal with the World Bank as the implementing agency. In Senegal, the project seeks to set up a system that aims to reduce environmental health risks from the release of uPOPS and other toxic chemicals in some municipalities in Dakar. Specifically, it will support efforts to limit unregulated open burning of wastes by removing uncontrolled dump sites through separation, segregation, recycling, stocking, collecting, and transporting municipal and hazardous wastes. In this regard, the component will support the engagement with private enterprises and the identification of relevant partners. Furthermore, it will implement a comprehensive urban solid waste management system and it will take measures to secure and develop public spaces (e.g., gardens, lakes, retention ponds) to prevent the proliferation of waste dumps and open burning.
Component 1: Institutional strengthening, knowledge, and capacity building.
There is an urgent need to build relevant capacities and to reform the legal and institutional framework for minimizing uPOPs from open burning of urban and other toxic wastes. The project will assist the government of Senegal in ensuring that adequate official guidance documents are available to support the implementation of the Stockholm Convention and its amendments. Appropriate Best Available Techniques (BAT) and Best Environmental Practices (BEP) will be established and implemented to reduce the release of UPOPs from open burning practices.
This component will support initiatives taken by the Government, and the municipalities of Hann-Bel Air and Dalifort as initial targeted areas, and potentially other municipalities in Dakar, to establish legal and institutional tools to formulate waste management systems and promote resource reduction, re-use, recycling, and compositing. The component will ensure national-level stakeholder coordination and participation of relevant agencies in the regional learning and knowledge-sharing activities on the harmful chemicals´ agenda.
Component 2: Policy dialogue and regulatory enhancements.
This component will support the Government´s efforts to strengthen the current environmental policies, regulations, and capacity to monitor, screen, and evaluate environmental and health risks associated with POPs and hazardous chemicals. The component will support the assessment of air quality in various municipalities and will develop strategies to promote the reduction of emissions and exposure to harmful chemicals and hazardous waste. Examples of such strategies include the gathering of health data, training healthcare workers, and awareness-raising through health facilities.
Component 3: Demonstrating the application of technological tools and economic approaches.
The main objective of this component is to support and implement actions to set up a system aiming at reducing environmental health risks from the release of uPOPs and other toxic chemicals through environmentally sound management of urban waste in municipalities in Dakar. Concurrently with improving the sanitary status, strategies to ensure long-term sustainability will be initiated by setting up a system adapted to local realities and accessible to the population.
Pollution Issues
It has been discovered that Open dumps are still common in Senegal with existing dumpsites being overburdened with no waste sorting being carried out. There is mostly occasional burning to provide space for incoming waste and auto incineration leading to obnoxious gases that are detrimental both to the environment and human health. The waste collection services are poor, and the waste tax collection system is weak.
Municipal solid waste generated in Senegal is composed of both harmless and toxic substances. Toxic substances include pharmaceutical products, chemicals, oils, car batteries, and dry batteries from electronic devices.
Regular open dumping occupies space and affects the aesthetics of the city and can lead to the obstruction of some roads, thus reducing available land in the city. The dumps are mostly exposed, and this permits lightweight wastes like plastic bags and papers to be carried by wind to the neighboring roadsides and areas. The emission of gases such as NOx, CO2, methane, etc. depletes the ozone layer and can lead to the fall of acidic rain which has adverse effects on agriculture. Surface and groundwater can also be contaminated to affect the quality of water and aquatic ecosystems.
Because wastes in Senegal are mostly burnt to create space for incoming waste, there is a high production of POPs, dioxins, and furans which are detrimental to human health.
Waste Management
Waste management in Dakar is integrative. The state, local authorities, and private authorities are part of the upstream while the local recyclers make up the downstream. Household waste management is mostly in the hands of the local communities while occasionally state technical services such as the department in charge of hygiene and the environment as well as NGOs, and the private sector come into play. There is no efficient collection nor proper treatment of household or industrial waste. Industrial waste is handled following the polluter pays principle. A program has been put in place in the country for the recovery of obsolete products and de-pollution of contaminated sites. Some trainings have been conducted as part of hazardous waste management due to the existence of the Basel Regional Centre for French-speaking Africa in Senegal.
Waste collected by transport vehicles is unsorted because the country has insufficient waste treatment infrastructures hence there is no treatment of waste before disposal.
Factors that prevent proper waste management in Senegal include;
The lack of coherence in the system, waste management not taken seriously in the management plan, insufficient educational and environmental institutes, weak public participation in waste management programs, legal vacuum in some waste management issues, inexistence of a structure for the treatment of hazardous waste, inaccessibility of areas during collection due to inadequate road networks. Additionally, lack of institutional continuity where a change in government results in a change in management and policies related to waste issues is noted as one of the main problems causing improper waste management in the country.
Consequently, improving waste management and sanitary status in the country requires a high level of environmental awareness of all stakeholders, the establishment of adequate infrastructure, and the improvement of the working conditions of the collection agents. Also, the tax system for the collection of household waste should be enhanced, public participation encouraged and more clauses on waste management should be introduced in the laws and effective enforcement ensured. Drawing the attention of the local communities to the importance of waste recovery and recovery activities is important in making them value good waste management practices and thus increase their participation in such activities.
Various laws and regulations have been adopted by Senegal for the management of solid waste: the Law on public Hygiene Code , the law on the Environment Code, the Local Government Act , and the Decree regulating waste collection . However, these laws have not been followed by effective implementation and enforcement due to technical, technological, institutional, and economic constraints.