Brazzaville, the capital of the Congo, has a population of over 1.5 million. With the increase in population comes an increase in the amount of waste produced, often deposited in illegal dumps, gullies and landfills located in the heart of the city.

Residents’ waste disposal practices vary from place to place. Many have avail of the services provided by pre-collection operators, who collect waste from households for widely varying rates. They are associative, business, or individual and informal. These pre-collection operators travel long distances, sometimes with rudimentary means of transport (wheelbarrows, “rickshaws”). The city’s nine district municipalities and the Central municipality share responsibility for waste management. Few pre-collection operators are recognised by the authorities, making their coordination, monitoring and control of the sector difficult.

To address these issues, the Filipa project aims to intervene between 2014 and 2016 to support the various waste management stakeholders in Brazzaville, with a view to providing a quality pre-collection service suited to the various specificities of Brazzaville. Conducted by GRET on behalf of the Municipality, the project works with users, pre-collection operators, and local authorities. The project is testing support and monitoring systems in 4 pilot districts (Talangaï, Ouénzé, Moungali and Makélékélé). It is carried out in synergy with other projects providing solutions for the transfer of waste.

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• 1% waste

The expected results are as follows:

• 80% of pre-collection operators are formally identified, grouped together and recognised by the municipalities;

• contracts are signed with the municipality, clarifying the rights, roles and responsibilities of each party;

• pre-collection operators are strengthened, equipped and supported;
• populations are encouraged to subscribe to the pre-collection operators’ services; operators’ the groups are strengthened in their commercial approach to developing the service;

• tools are capitalised on and disseminated; municipalities are strengthened to monitor and implement these tools.

The first year was devoted to the diagnostic phases (identification of operators, qualitative interviews, inventory of deposits, organisation of workshops in the districts of Brazzaville), as well as the launch of the process for registration and recognition of operators.