Leapfrogging Possibilities For Sustainable Consumption and ...

primarily along waterways. Associated health problems included high incidences of
cholera, diarrhoea, and dysentery, especially in children 14 .
Table 3: Per capita Solid Waste generation selected African cities 15
Country City Per capita solid
waste generation
(kg/day)
Benin Porto Novo 0.5
Burkina Faso Ouagadougou 0.7
Burundi Bujumbura 1.4
Cameroon Douala 0.7
Yaounde 0.8
Congo DR Kinshasa 1.2
Congo Rep. Brazzaville 0.6
Cote d’Ivoire Abidjan 1.0
Egypt Cairo 0.5
Gambia, The Banjul 0.3
Ghana Accra 0.4
Guinea Conakry 0.7
Mauritania Nouakchott 0.9
Morocco Rabat 0.6
Namibia Windhoek 0.7
Niger Niamey 1.0
Nigeria Ibadan 1.1
Lagos 0.3
Senegal Dakar 0.7
Tanzania Dar es Salaam 1.0
Togo Lome 1.9
Tunisia Tunis 0.5
Uganda Kampala 0.6
Zimbabwe Harare 0.7
Moreover, there is a shift in the complexity of the waste stream as many and many new
fractions make it into the municipal waste flow. The organic part of the waste stream that
is common to all countries which is either poorly managed or not managed at all is a
health threat that can be related to child mortality and other sanitary challenges. MSW
from Accra, Ibadan, Dakar, Abidjan, and Lusaka shows organic content ranging from 35-
80% (generally toward the higher end of this range); plastic, glass, and metals at less than
10% on wet basis at delivery. 16 Others include paper, ashes from fuel wood and charcoal
as well as the remains of common foods such as sugar cane, mangoes, and bananas.
African cities have not been able to set up adequate system for the collection of municipal
and industrial waste due to their poor infrastructure base, limited resources and lack of
proper urban management. These cities and municipalities are spending 20-50 percent of
their budget in solid waste management; only 20-80 percent of the waste is collected 17 .
14 Palczynski (2002)
15 Achankeng (2003)
16 Palczynski (2002)
17 Achankeng (2003)
15