Sanitation Surge Sets a New Tone in the Capital
The Congolese capital has rarely looked as orderly as it did this August. Days before the 64th anniversary of Independence, Minister of Urban Sanitation, Local Development and Road Maintenance Juste Désiré Mondélé toured Brazzaville’s main arteries and market districts and awarded the ongoing “operation spéciale d’assainissement et de déguerpissement” an encouraging “assez bien”. While the rating is cautious, the optics were unmistakable: freshly swept boulevards, informal stalls pushed back to allocated zones and pedestrians reclaiming sidewalks along the emblematic Denis Sassou Nguesso and Alfred Raoul avenues (government communiqué, 14 Aug 2023).
The campaign, launched in early July, was conceived as an accelerated phase of the broader “Brazzaville Ville Propre 2025” strategy. According to the Ministry, more than 2,100 tonnes of solid waste were collected in four weeks, and 147 illegal structures dismantled. Municipal employees, soldiers, youth volunteers and market cooperatives joined forces, signalling a whole-of-society approach that the authorities hope will outlast the Independence festivities.
Government Vision: From Periodic Clean-Ups to Cultural Reflex
At the heart of the operation is a deliberate shift from ad-hoc clean-up days to a culture of preventive hygiene. “The real challenge is to install a new and durable citizenship,” the minister noted during his inspection tour, invoking a social contract in which residents regard littering as an affront to collective wellbeing.
City council data show that only one household in three in Brazzaville previously relied on formal waste-collection services. By tightening enforcement against indiscriminate dumping and subsidising subscription fees for low-income neighbourhoods, the municipality aims to raise coverage to 70 percent by 2025. Mayor Dieudonné Bantsimba argued that the financial incentive is more sustainable than punitive fines alone: “If the service is affordable, behaviour will follow.”
Public Health Returns: Pre-empting Cholera and Vector-Borne Risk
The sanitation push is not merely aesthetic. The World Health Organization recorded a resurgence of cholera in several Central African urban centres during the 2022-23 season, with informal markets identified as major transmission nodes (WHO 2023 Cholera Fact Sheet). Brazzaville’s own epidemiological bulletin registered 43 suspected cases in peripheral districts in the first quarter of 2023. By clearing clogged drains, relocating vendors away from open sewers and expanding night-time lighting, officials hope to cut both water-borne exposure and mosquito breeding sites.
Local physician Dr. Clarisse Mabiala notes that the early indicators are promising: outpatient consultations for acute diarrhoea at Makélékélé hospital fell by 18 percent in July compared with the same month last year. “Improved waste evacuation, coupled with community messaging, is already reducing disease incidence,” she observed, while cautioning that seasonal rains in October will provide a sterner test.
Infrastructure Investments Underpinning the Clean Sweep
Behind the mobilisation lies a more discreet budgetary effort. The Ministry of Finance recently allocated an additional 4.8 billion CFA francs to modernise transfer stations and acquire ten compactor trucks, replacing an ageing fleet whose average vehicle had logged more than 350,000 kilometres (Brazzaville City Council press release, 12 Aug 2023). The public-private concessionaire Averda Congo has been contracted to install GPS-tracked bins along the corniche and to pilot a waste-to-energy unit near the Djoué bridge by 2024.
Urban planners highlight that infrastructure investment is indispensable if behavioural change is to be sustained. “Citizens will only sort and store garbage properly if collection is predictable,” argues UN-Habitat consultant Jean-Baptiste Ndinga, referencing comparative data from Dar es Salaam and Kigali, where regular pick-up improved compliance by more than 40 percent (UN-Habitat 2022 Urbanization Report).
Regional Cooperation and Diplomatic Signalling
Brazzaville’s cleanliness campaign also carries a diplomatic subtext. The city is due to host the next Central African Economic and Monetary Community summit in December. Showcasing orderly streets is viewed as an informal benchmark of governance capacity. In a recent press briefing, Foreign Minister Jean-Claude Gakosso underlined the linkage: “A capital that is clean and safe mirrors the credibility of its state on the regional stage.”
Congo-Brazzaville has consequently opened technical exchanges with neighbouring Kinshasa and Libreville on waste-management procurement. International partners have taken note: the French Development Agency confirmed a €25 million credit line for drainage rehabilitation, while the African Development Bank is studying co-financing of street-lighting along the southern corniche.
Pathways to Excellence: From ‘Assez Bien’ to ‘Excellent’
Minister Mondélé’s stated ambition is to move the operation’s rating from “fair” to “excellent” within one year. The roadmap includes establishing ward-level sanitation committees, widening school curricula to integrate environmental stewardship and introducing a digital platform for residents to flag illegal dumping in real time.
Looking Ahead: Sustaining Momentum Beyond Festivities
The question that preoccupies urbanists is whether progress can survive the political calendar. Past clean-up drives in 2010 and 2015 faded once commemorative events concluded. This time, officials stress that regulatory teeth—ranging from graduated fines to temporary market closures—will be applied consistently.
For now, the mood among residents is cautiously optimistic. Shopkeeper Irène Koumba, whose stall borders the renovated Avenue de la Paix, voiced a sentiment heard across the capital: “If the city keeps collecting our waste, you’ll be surprised how tidy we can be.” Whether the momentum endures will depend on maintaining the intricate balance of civic engagement, fiscal commitment and infrastructural reliability that has, for the moment, given Brazzaville its cleanest visage in years.