The cost of Senegal's garbage

I saw firsthand today how the garbage problem is undermining Senegal’s economic prosperity. Piles of garbage have been thrown over the ridge above the Technopol development area, which is also a very beautiful wetland preserve of hundreds of acres, also the site of the new but sorely undeveloped Dakar golf course…

I left the President Meridian this morning after a brief but fascinating talk with Heinz about nuclear power—just recently pushed by both America’s and Senegal’s presidents—as a solution to global warming, with the probably insurmountable concerns which would have to be addressed by global cooperation: safe operation, political questions of stability and terrorism threat, fuel for arms, nuclear waste management, etc… I left the President to begin our travels through the Senegalese hinterlands—to Touba and land beyond uncharted. I will miss the cosmopolitan excitement there. But before heading out tomorrow, we saw the city water treatment facility near the Technopol site, surrounded by lush plant nurseries. Then we drove above the palm trees and wetlands to see children playing in garbage covering, almost entirely, the ridges around the site. We saw further health concerns at the nearby street food market where reeking garbage piles sit uncollected next to the food vendors. Tomorrow we will stop at the country’s one landfill which, as I understand, is surrounded by choleric vegetable gardens… M. Libasse dreams of cleaning up the hillside around Technopol and using the treated water to finish the golf grass. Something has to start somewhere…