Gov't urges stakeholders to adopt durable waste management solutions.

 She presided the confab on behalf of the Prime Minister, Head of Government. The gathering was used to discuss durable strategies to be designed by the State and environmental experts in handling waste management challenges.   

It attended by the Minister of Decentralisation and Local Development, George Elanga Obam; the Director General of waste management company, HYSACAM, Dr Jean Pierre Ymele; Mayors from all ten regions in the country, town planners and environmental specialists and other actors in the domain waste management.

Discussions at the confab centred on the technical and operational framework of waste management infrastructure and the circular economy.

Measures to be implemented 

The conference resulted in some concrete measures to be implemented in five areas in order to solve the issues of waste in cities. 

Resolutions focused on the financing and contextualisation of waste resource management in the country with a special allocation account to ensure the transfer of resources to municipalities to be created. 

Participants also stressed on reforming the financing system to better target sources of waste production, increasing the share of municipalities in pre-collection and collection operations in their areas.

The experts further recommended the construction of waste consolidation platforms in the cities of Douala and Yaounde, where work could start this year. 

Infrastructure wise, it was noted that possible solutions include the elimination of garbage bins along the main roads, and the implementation of a programme to build infrastructures such as transfer and treatment centres.

The stakeholders also talked of transforming the roadmap of the conference into a national policy document on waste resources to support circular economy initiatives, open circular economy training courses in universities, professional institutions and technical high schools, to encourage selective sorting and the creation of waste recovery units.

A revision of a texts governing the sector was proposed, as was the reinforcement of sanctions in terms of hygiene and sanitation to be implemented, in order to enhance governance and citizen involvement.

The participants stated that with regard to the organisation of pre-collection and public participation, the idea of organising municipalities into pre-collection zones was put forward, in addition to professionalising the pre-collection sector and organising general clean-up days.  

Meanwhile, Minister Ketcha Courtes announced that an inter-ministerial follow-up committee would be set up to ensure the implementation of these recommendations, where Mayors' associations will also be actively involved.

She praised the quality of the resolutions resulting from the workshops, as well as those of the roundtable on financing and contextualisation of waste management. 

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3447 of Tuesday May 13, 2025