ENG - UN CC:Learn

AFRICA
SENEGAL
MDG7
Some of the challenges facing Senegal include: weak social mobilization to prevent the loss of natural resources; lack
of financial support; need to implement environmental protection strategies; weak strategic framework; unavailability of
information; lack of public awareness regarding roles and responsibilities, and the absence of a thorough environmental database.
Progress Towards Environmental Sustainability
The establishment of the Superior Council for the Environment and
Natural Resources, as well as of the Center for Ecological Monitoring have
both paved the way for the development of Senegal’s National
Environmental Action Plan, which serves as a useful tool to properly address the country’s environmental problems.
Important efforts remain to be made in Senegal’s water sector, if it is to reach its country-specific target of providing 35 liters of
water per person per day. In order to achieve this target, Senegal, with its current rate of 28 liters per person per day, will need the
support of its partners in several ways, including the establishment of new water points as well as the rehabilitation of old water
facilities.
Senegal recognizes the importance of biodiversity and has therefore protected 6 national parks, 6 fauna reserves and 213 forests.
Some of the issues addressed by the Ministry of Environment focus
on desertification, climate change, biodiversity, solid waste management,
and pollution. 1
QUICK FACTS
CURRENT PORTFOLIO BUDGET
Total UNDP-GEF and Co-Finance: $9,075,000
Total UNDP and Co-Finance: $15,192,977
Total: $24,267,977
Atlantic
Ocean
Dakar
THE GAMBIA
St Louis
Thiès
Kaolack
SENEGAL
GUINEA-
BISSAU
MAURITANIA
GUINEA
MALI
Managing Wastewater: Preventing Malaria and Improving Livelihoods 2
SPOTLIGHT
Near Dakar, in a sprawling peri-urban hinterland called Yeumbeul, with a population of 120,000, stagnant pools of discarded
household wastewater provide breeding-grounds for mosquitoes. As a result, malaria sufferers, mainly children, account for
over 80% of all medical consultations.
UNDP’s LIFE programme has been working in one neighborhood, Houdalaye, which today is the cleanest in all Yeumbeul. The
lanes are dry, there are fewer mosquitoes and incidents of malaria are declining. 40% of the families in Houdalaye now have
drainage tanks underneath their homes for the disposal of wastewater. Those without tanks who continue to throw water out
of their houses have learnt to sweep it away with a broom to keep the ground dry. A quarter of LIFE’s project budget was spent
on training, focused in particular on disease prevention.
LIFE’s partner NGO, ANBEP (the National Association for the Wellbeing of the Population) worked through its 18 neighborhood
sub-groups, each with between 50 and 80 members. ANBEP organized 36 community meetings in which Health Department
officials provided instruction in household waste management, water, health and sanitation, and nutrition to some 8,000 people.
300 unemployed young people were trained as informal public health workers, 102 of them women.“You have to raise people’s
awareness that all the houses and the streets must be kept clean,” says Alpha Ndiaye, President of ANBEP.“You explain how to
maintain the wastewater tanks, how to keep children and adults healthy. As a result of all these discussions, people’s behavior
WATER
has changed. When you walk around Yeumbeul today you see a big difference between the neighborhoods where we have
worked and other areas.Today, people in Houdalaye are constantly receiving visitors from other places who come to learn from
their experience.”
98