THE POOR WASTE MANAGEMENT OF KINSHASA CITY

The debate over sanitation in the city of Kinshasa is resurfacing, Operation Kin Bopeto is floundering. This initiative, however, launched with great fanfare by the Head of State in Bandalungwa, one of the lively communes of the capital, is not followed up. The kinois resist. Then a day later, Kinshasa stinks, is full of rubbish, pollution has reached a level where the question of the daily management of garbage by the Kinshasa city authority arises. Indeed,the appointment of “Saturday salongo” loses its meaning. The collected waste awaits the next rain to block the water pipes …

To this are added dumping bad manners: dumping of empty water or juice bottles on the sidewalk, throwing plastic packaging and other household waste on the ground. The absence of public garbage cans help to perpetuate this uncivil behavior. In addition, the lack of sanitation control brigade does not help matters.

Especially since the cleaners of major streets in the Gombe area have almost disappeared, and are almost absent on certain roads. What exactly has happened since their last appearance before the Prime Minister’s Office claiming unpaid wages?

Investigative work revealed the timid presence of some of them. For example, while the drivers, entangled in the traffic jams of Mondjiba linked to the grade separation, were rolling on this artery, these women and men swept the road overnight, but unfortunately in the early morning, the sand gathered in small heaps each meter continues to wait for evacuation. A situation that has become normal in the capital.

Who should we blame?

Beyond what’s mentioned above, the competence to clean up the city of Kinshasa is a matter exclusively reserved for the provincial government. They can draw on the investment fund to do this, and also rely on the Kinshasa Sanitation Authority and the Sanitation Brigade. Making the capital clean requires substantial resources. The reason why governor Gentiny Ngobila requested the implication of the Government to accede to the tax collected in the name of the city by REGIDESO.

As for municipal garbage collectors, made up largely of widows or wives of soldiers employed by health NGOs, they worked to enrich a network that drew from the treasury, the month, the sum of one million US dollar.

We must also remember that several days of demonstration before the Prime Minister’s Office of these surface technicians supported by hot meals and breakfasts served by the executioners who share the bulk of the money by paying them crumbs in Congolese francs, helped to understand the scam in this case.

We must therefore find a new formula, so that the city becomes clean again, without breaking the treasury. In the meantime, everyone can get their hands dirty, and first, by giving meaning to Operation Kin-Bopeto, far from populist propaganda.

The provincial authorities in Kinshasa have all the services necessary to make the capital clean: they must put them to work.