The Douala Urban Community (CUD) is finally taking action to reduce the glaring and growing insalubrity prevailing in Cameroon's economic capital. On 21 July 2023, the CUD created the Régie de propreté urbaine (RPU). The new structure will support waste management in the city of Douala, where the Société d'hygiène et de salubrité du Cameroun (Hysacam) previously had a monopoly.
With household waste pollution becoming unbearable in Cameroon’s economic capital, despite the activities of the Société d’hygiène et de salubrité du Cameroun (Hysacam), the Douala Urban Community (CUD) has finally decided to take action. On 21 July 2023, Roger Mbassa Ndine, the mayor of the city of Douala, issued a decree creating the Urban Cleaning Authority (Régie de propreté urbaine – RPU). According to the municipality, in addition to growing pollution, this project was prompted by the lack of sanitary awareness among the population, with consequences for health and the environment.
According to paragraph 2 of article 4 of the decree of 21 July 2023, the RPU will plan and organise the times and days of cleaning and collection of household and similar waste in the targeted areas. The new authority will also deal with bulky items such as non-household waste, used tyres, used office furniture, branches, etc. To carry out this task, the RPU will be equipped with bins, waste bags and collection bins. The lorries will be used to transport the waste to dedicated sites, in accordance with the procedures laid down by the municipality.
A cleaner environment
The RPU will also be responsible for cleaning gutters, weeding public roadways and public spaces, maintaining green spaces not included in maintenance contracts, and manual and mechanical cleaning of public roads and squares, with the exception of those covered by the specifications of companies whose contracts are monitored by the Douala Department of the Environment. The RPU may also replace these companies where necessary”, the decree states. At the same time, the Régie de propreté urbaine de Douala will be raising awareness and educating people about sorting and recycling solid waste.
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The signing of this order by the CUD comes more than six years after the introduction (2017) of a system of pre-collection of household waste in Cameroon’s economic capital, in partnership with six district town halls in the Wouri division. This system has shown its limitations, given the persistence of unsanitary conditions in Douala. To date, the city produces 2,500 tonnes of solid waste a day, of which 1,500 to 1,700 tonnes is collected and treated by Hysacam.
Irregular waste management, a widespread problem in Cameroon
Irregular waste management is not confined to the city of Douala. In January 2023, the Cameroon government officially recruited a new operator to support Hysacam’s activities in the city of Yaoundé. This was the Cameroonian company Thychlof, which specialises in real estate, environmental maintenance and civil engineering works.
Since then, Thychlof Environnement, the branch responsible for sanitation work, has been collecting and transporting household waste in the Yaoundé III district and in several other parts of the city, according to a schedule drawn up in conjunction with Hysacam and coordinated by the Yaoundé Urban Community (CUY) to avoid overlaps in the field.
Inès Magoum
