In developing countries, the management of solid waste constitutes one of the main challenges of the present decade. A pre collecting pilot operation taking solid waste from individual households to municipal bins was implemented at Melen in Yaounde.
The methods used for the preparation of this operation included meetings between project partners to agree on project objectives and implementation, the identification and interviewing of key actors, conducting a population census and an assessment of the waste generating activities in the targeted area, documenting research, meetings for information sharing and discussion with the inhabitants and the mapping of potential waste collecting itineraries in the targeted areas.
By the end of the first year of investigation, we identified the actors of waste management and the services they offered, identified the youth associations capable of waste collection process implementation, and assessed the population’s ability to finance collection the cost of which varied between US$1.25 and US$5 per month. In addition, we noticed that 81% of the households were ready to pay for the pre collection of their waste. The project team endeavoured to create an environment that supported dialogue among various actors enabling follow-up and supervision of the process on the field. The assessment of the first 5 years of the waste program has proven the commitment of the inhabitants to participate in this type of operation through the direct payment for the service: 40 % of the targeted households continued to pay for the pre collection service. The total contribution collected is about US$7,750 per year that permits the employment of 8 persons.
This operation collected 22.4 tons of waste per month between 2002 and 2007, waste that would have been otherwise thrown into the streams, directly improving the environment and the population's health in these quarters.
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