BENIN – A government agency for solid waste management in Benin has decided to embrace a new innovate and sustainable way to tackle household waste in the West African country.
The agency, Société de gestion des déchets et de la salubrité du Grand Nokoué (SGDS-GN)- which is responsible for water and sanitation in Grand Nokoué decided to use tricycles to speed up collection work in the field.
Using tricycles to collect waste is a novel idea that has not been previously explored in Benin and indeed in many other countries in Africa.
Apart from the agility, tricycles also present a great opportunity for employment particularly for the country’s teeming youth population.
“some 10,000 direct and indirect jobs in the waste sector will be created to ensure the full implementation of the solid and household waste management project in Greater Nokoué.”
José Didier Tonato – Benin’s Minister for the Living Environment and Sustainable Development.
Municipalities of many African cities mostly rely on their limited fleet size of waste collection trucks which are no match for the amount of waste generated.
Most of the waste is thus not collected and is left to pile up on streets, illegal dumping sites, or in rivers, adversely affecting the aesthetics of neighbourhoods and resulting in the spread of diseases.
In Benin, a study was conducted by a French consultancy company Girus IRC, revealed that 358,000 tonnes of waste are produced each year in the towns around the Grand Nokoué.
However, the study reported that only 10 per cent of this waste is collected, leaving the rest of the rubbish to degrade in nature and in the cities.
Société de gestion des déchets et de la salubrité du Grand Nokoué (SGDS-GN) however has a goal of improving the collection of solid and household waste.
In order to achieve its goal, the public company decided to involve small and medium enterprises (SMEs) operating in waste management.
As a result, 69 of them received 550 three-wheeled machines to improve waste collection which will be used as part of the second phase of the solid and household waste management project in the greater Nokoué area.
SGDS-GN obtained the tricycles following an international call for tenders for about 1.1 billion CFA francs (about US$2.02 million euros), entirely financed by the Beninese public treasury.
Before the field trips, the drivers of the vehicles and their supervisors will undergo a short two-day theoretical and practical training to operate their machines.
According to the partnership between SGDS-GN and the supplier of the tricycles, a garage will also be built in each commune of Greater Nokoué for the repair and maintenance of the tricycles for at least 18 months.
Benin’s Minister of Living Environment and Sustainable Development, José Didier Tonato, says that Benin has further invested 7 billion CFA francs (about US$11.98 million) for the acquisition of heavy machinery that will be delivered in the coming months.
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