Environment : "A city cannot develop without good waste management", Lawson said Valery

Received this Friday 09 October in the program ''Current Questions'' of the radio Capp Fm, the Managing Director of the Waste and Sanitation Management Company of Grand Nokoué (Sgds-gn), Valery Lawson justified the merits of this government project by recalling the challenges of its structure.

Firmin KASSAGA

Taking into account five of the seventy-seven (77) Municipalities of Benin (Porto-Novo, Cotonou, Abomey-Calavi, Ouidah and Sèmè-Podji), the situation of the waste collette in the various cities constituting Greater Nokoué remains one of the major challenges of the Beninese government. To meet this challenge, the government has set up a company whose primary task is, waste management and sanitation.

“A city cannot develop without good waste management which is an essential imperative because we cannot live with garbage.. It is for this reason that the government of President Patrice Talon has made it a flagship project., tried to justify Valery Lawson who goes on to explain the choice of the five (5) communes that sont Porto-Novo, Cotonou, Abomey-Calavi, Ouidah and Sèmè-Podji for the realization of this vast environmental project. "Cotonou.", it is the economic capital, it is the gateway to Benin. It necessarily needs to be healthy. Ouidah is a tourist town. The most important projects of the action program for the government (Pag) in tourism today, are being made in this city. Porto-Novo is the political capital so also needs to be clean. The same for Sèmè-Podji and Abomey-Calavi which are towns close to Cotonou and which also contribute to its well-being”, he said before adding "The management of waste and sanitation formerly carried out by the municipalities has shown its limit, which justifies the assumption of responsibility for these activities by the State”. However, to believe it, the federation of the municipalities concerned participates in the monitoring of this program, through agreements. “In these conventions, it is said that one of the responsibilities of municipalities is to make land available to society for the construction of infrastructure to serve society… municipalities can also provide financial resources”.

According to M. Lawson, the taking over by the State of the management of sanitation in these municipalities is due in particular to the lack of efficiency of the non-governmental organizations which deal with this sector. Not only did the latter "offer services to those who have the means, but after pickup, no one cared what happened to the waste. In fact, this garbage is sometimes used to close the lowlands, which explains the extent of the floods that we experienced in 2010 », he hammered while pointing out that the service was limited to pre-collection. “The collection was to be followed by the transport of the waste to a site to be treated, but these two stages, in four out of five municipalities, did not exist. It is only in Cotonou that approximately 10% of the waste produced was collected and treated. The service was therefore not done in a sustainable and efficient way”, he asserted. “We have now decided to provide service on the three links, namely, pre-collection, collection and transport and finally landfilling. », he hinted.

The director of the new company says that all households in Greater Nokoué will benefit from the collection service.

He also points out that the garbage will be buried in two localities, namely Ouèssè and Takon.. “But before the conveyance to these centers, we have decided to proceed with sorting in order to be able to reduce the quantity of non-biodegradable waste”, he concluded.