The National Sanitation Office of Senegal (ONAS) intends to structure the mechanical emptying sector from new technical and administrative organizational forms to be adopted in an inclusive and participatory manner, Mbaye Mbeguere, Coordinator of the Program for Structuring the Fecal Sludge Market, said in Dakar on Thursday. “We want to reach a consensus with all stakeholders in the emptying sector for its implementation,” he said at the workshop on the validation of the emptying business certification process. The meeting was held in partnership with the Pan African Intergovernmental Agency, Water and Sanitation for Africa (WSA).

“We need to organize this sector by establishing a number of administrative and technical criteria that can allow someone to carry out this activity for the benefit of people,” the Coordinator of the ONAS Program for Structuring the Fecal Sludge Market added. This validation meeting is part of the Program for Structuring the Fecal Sludge Market conducted by ONAS in Pikine and Guediawaye, two municipalities located in Dakar suburban area. The program is sponsored up to FCFA7 billion by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. “We want to improve these people’s sanitation conditions, which are mostly on-site. They have problems emptying their pits and the Government, through this program, seeks to provide them with affordable emptying of their individual sanitation facilities,” said Mbaye Mbeguere.

He added that the Program for Structuring the Fecal Sludge Market included several activities: certification of emptying companies, including those emptying septic tanks in Dakar suburb areas. “Certification will be a long process. Once the President of the Republic takes the decree, we will take the time to allow the emptiers to get prepared, to upgrade their trucks and businesses,” said Mr. Mbeguere. However, he assured that the Government would support the stakeholders in the sector to help as many businesses as possible to benefit from this certification in order to perform emptying in a free and environment-friendly manner.

“We will give every emptier FCFA20 million to help them renew their fleets,” he said, before adding that the Government provided the emptiers with a guarantee fund to enable them to access credit and purchase more efficient working tools. “Through the certification process and the guarantee fund, we aim to renew, in the next two years, 38 new emptying trucks that will be circulating in Pikine and Guediawaye,” he said.