Household Solid Waste, a Challenge of Urban Sanitation: Case of Ngor Municipality (Dakar, Senegal)

Abstract

This study aims to understand factors that are causing the malfunction of the garbage collection system in the municipality of Ngor. To achieve this goal, we have adopted a methodological approach that focuses essentially on three components: (i) the investigation of 1/4 of Ngor's concessions through observation, interviews, questionnaires and documentation for collect socio-economic data; (ii) GPS surveys and mapping of the study area using GIS techniques and tools based on satellite images; (iii) analysis of collected information based on descriptive statistics. The results obtained reveal a bad garbage collection, which is at the origin of the insalubrities, the development of flies, mosquitoes and rodents having repercussions on the frame of life of the populations. It is also at the origin of the narrow streets, thus making access to neighborhoods difficult; this leads people to dispose of garbage in the open air or on the beach and in the evacuation channels, to the detriment of environmental concerns. This study has clearly highlighted deficiencies of human nature in the system of collection of household garbage in the municipality of Ngor. These results should provide the municipal authorities with a basis for thinking about the reformulation of their system of governance of such garbage and their political will to definitively solve the problem.