Action communale de lutte contre la pollution par les déchets. Cas de la commune de Soa dans la Mefou et Afamba (Centre-Cameroun)

Abstract

The issue of environmental pollution caused by waste remains at the heart of current pressing themes in the global village. This is why states are undertaking public policies (conventions, decrees, laws, orders, strategies) in favor of environmental protection, which are currently in line with the achievement of sustainable development objectives. In Cameroon, the implementation and application of the national environmental and waste management policy is the responsibility of the government, together with the decentralized territorial communities, grassroots communities and environmental defense associations. Thus, all municipalities apply the texts relating to waste management, including that of Soa, which has set up a hygiene and sanitation service. We also note the establishment of cleaning and collection days, cantonment programs, and awareness, penalties. However, despite the establishment of all these measures, waste continues to be incinerated, dumped along roadsides, in gutters, and degrades the quality of air, water and soil. From this observation, the overall objective of this research is to explain and understand the real causes of pollution by waste, despite the municipal actions taken. To achieve this, the main hypothesis formulated is that according to "despite the awareness-raising and repressive actions carried out by the municipality, waste persists here because of a double dynamic". To verify this hypothesis, two main theories were used, namely, the stakeholder theory of Edward FREEMAN and the dynamic sociology of Georges BALANDIER. The first theory made it possible to know how the officials of the commune of Soa involve the local population in the development and implementation of actions to fight against pollution by waste, and the second made it possible to explain the proliferation of waste by a double dynamic, although this theory has known its limits. Then, we used one hundred and seventeen (117) documents, used direct observation and carried out thirty semi-structured interviews with municipal actors, non-governmental actors and the local population. The method of processing the data collected as part of this research was content analysis. At the end of this content analysis, the main result obtained is that the proliferation of waste in the city of Soa can be explained by a triple dynamic (endogenous, mixed and exogenous). The endogenous dynamics can be summed up in four (04) points, namely: the ineffectiveness of the actions taken to combat waste; the problem of human resources management within the municipality of Soa; the issue of remoteness and the development of controlled landfills in the town of Soa and; the poor control of demographic expansion. Two (02) exogenous dynamics make it possible to explain the proliferation of waste in Soa, in particular, the question of partnership between the urban community of Yaoundé, HYSACAM and the municipality of Soa; the low production and import of biodegradable packaging. With regard to mixed dynamics, we have identified three (03) in total, such as, the deviations of users of the city: the involvement of populations and public authorities (municipality + MINEPDED); the problem of financial resources within the municipality of Soa and the poor categorization of waste in the town of Soa.