EcoSaMe: Pioneering circular economy solutions for sustainable sanitation in Menoua region, Cameroon
(6/6) Discover today how Nantes Métropole wants to improve access to essential services and living conditions for more than 500,000 inhabitants of Menoua (Cameroon). This is one of the 6 shortlisted projects for the final phase of the PLATFORMAwards, our prize to reward the best practices in decentralised development cooperation. The jury will announce the names of the 3 finalists on 1st April in Seville (Spain). Register to the World Forum of Local Economic Development (WFLED) to attend the award ceremony.
(Projects are sorted by alphabetical order)
Building on long-standing decentralised cooperation between the Metropole of Nantes, the city of Dschang and the Menoua Syndicate (SYCOME) (Cameroon), with the support of the International Association of French-Speaking Mayors (AIMF), the EcoSaMe (Circular Economy and Menoua Health) project aims to develop liquid sanitation solutions on the scale of the Menoua Syndicate of Municipalities, using a circular economy approach.
This initiative will improve access to essential services and living conditions for more than 500,000 people, while strengthening local governance and promoting a long-term, multi-stakeholder approach to decentralised cooperation.
In the Menoua region, the majority of the population use traditional latrines dug into the ground, and only a minority have septic tanks. This situation, combined with the dumping of faecal sludge into watercourses, leads to the contamination of wells located in dense areas and low-lying areas. In the absence of sustainable solutions for sludge disposal and treatment, latrine emptying is carried out in conditions that are dangerous for both operators and the population. The sludge discharged into the environment thus represents a major health and environmental problem.
The faecal sludge management system is an appropriate and pragmatic solution to the challenges of wastewater treatment. It is estimated that these solutions generally cost 10 times less than the alternative of sewers with a plant. The aim is to meet needs by building on existing formal and informal sewage systems, rather than trying to replace them by importing a model designed for developed countries. In this field, the EcoSaMe project is a pioneer for its territorial approach (covering the 6 communes of the Menoua) and for the innovative, decentralised and flexible sanitation solutions that are being developed.
Through this project, SYCOME is putting in place the first pooled service supported by the inter-municipality since its creation in 2018. The technology adopted is the result of an exchange of expertise between professionals and experts from Nantes Métropole, the Syndicat de Communes de la Menoua, the AIMF and the Loire Bretagne Water Agency. The involvement of all the players has enabled the creation of a specific service that can be replicated in other towns and communities in developing countries.
The specific objectives of the project are:
- Capacity-building for local public authorities and private players, in terms of project management, technical skills, project engineering, pooling of services and capacity-building.
- Improving the health and living conditions of the Menoua population, by improving access to water and sanitation services.
- The development of a local wastewater treatment industry, with direct spin-offs for the local economy as part of a circular economy, including the development of an ecological industry for the marketing of co-composting products from the plant, to improve natural fertilisers for local agriculture.
This is a pilot project, the implementation of which is expected to be capitalised on, enriched by exchanges with Nantes Métropole but also with other cities in the AIMF network working on the same issues (at sub-regional and international level). In addition to the technical solution offered to the beneficiary cities, a global support effort to strengthen the capacities and skills of the services is being organised.
