BENIN: waste collection service to be paid for from 1 April 2022

Société de gestion des déchets et de la salubrité du grand Nokoué (SGDS-GN), which has been collecting garbage in grand Nokoué for the past 19 months, will now impose a fee on each household. “The cost has not yet been defined, but we assure you that it will be an acceptable contribution. It will be deducted from the electricity and water bills,” explains Valerie Lawson, the general manager of the SGDS-GN.

The new measure will be effective from April 1^st, 2022. According to Valerie Lawson, it aims to increase the efficiency of the SGDS-GN, which manages 450,000 tons of household waste annually, of which 46% is organic, 5.5% recyclable and 35% is fine sand. To date, the public service company collects 81% of the waste produced in the greater Nokoué area and wants to reach 100%.

Support from the population?

According to the Beninese authorities, this initiative is part of the implementation of strategic axis 7 of pillar 3 of the Government Action Program (PAG). This policy aims to solve the problem of urban sanitation in a sustainable manner in order to improve public health conditions, the well-being of the population and to reduce the harmful impact of the proliferation of waste on the environment. The PAG covers the cities of Cotonou, Sèmè-Podji, Porto-Novo, Ouidah and Abomey-Calavi.  These communes make up the greater Nokoué area.

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If the new SGDS-GN policy in favour of waste collection is a step forward for access to sanitation in the greater Nokoué area, the question arises as to whether the population will adhere to it, knowing that for some months now (June 2021), the public service company has been requiring households to package their waste in 840-standard garbage cans, a regulation that has not yet been applied by all. This equipment is on sale in Benin for 25,000 CFA francs, more than 38 euros.

Inès Magoum