By Olivier c | Project Leader
applied, while plastic packaging takes between 100 and 400 years to biodegrade. According to the environmental expert, President of the Salimadi association:
There should be mass awareness on the management of plastic bottles or flasks.
In the provinces, public trash cans remain a rare gem
Public trash cans remain a rare gem in remote neighborhoods and in the provinces in the country. The gutters are transformed into public trash cans. Across the country, they are clogged with all kinds of solid waste.
The consequences are not long in showing themselves. Every time it rains heavily, floods are recurrent in the city center of Bujumbura City Hall. The road also becomes impassable for pedestrians and vehicles.
For the Environmental expert
These floods are the result of gutters draining rainwater clogged with all kinds of waste. These waters must then find a way if their paths, the gutters, are clogged.
If erosion carries this plastic waste, it ends up in Lake Tanganyika. On the beaches of the lake, plastic waste is strewn everywhere. For example, in Kumase (not far from Lake Tanganyika), in the Ngagara district, plastic waste has accumulated in large numbers.
According to the World Bank, the world generates 2 billion tons of municipal solid waste each year. This figure is expected to reach 3.4 billion tons in 2050.
Out of 630 tons of waste produced daily in Bujumbura City Hall, approximately 51 tons are plastic waste. However, its management is problematic to this day.
In 2025, the Burundian president decreed a law banning the manufacture, import, storage, sale and use of all plastic bags and other packaging. Article 7 of the decree states:
Plastic waste, including plastic bottles and flasks, is returned to suppliers who store, recycle or recover it.
The emitters of this plastic waste do not collect it. Quite the opposite. It is collected by individuals, liquid products such as palm and cotton oil, and other companies manufacturing juices to package their products in turn.
Since 2023, we have been running a project to promote and protect biodiversity in Burundi. This is a key issue in this country where demographic pressure weighs heavily on the environment.
In Burundi, a very densely populated country, natural resources are subject to considerable pressure, leading to massive soil erosion, drying out and cultivation of the last marshy areas. Protecting biodiversity also means preserving – and restoring when necessary – the ecosystem services that enable sustainable agricultural production and play a role in regulating floods. This also helps prevent exacerbated problems of food insecurity, which can create serious tensions between communities.
With this in mind, we have been running a brand new programme since 2023, with the support of the European Union. It aims to strengthen civil society organizations and support them in developing activities related to the protection of biodiversity and natural resources, the local environment and sanitation.
We still need your help to continue our project.
Save Life Make Difference
Bujumbura Burundi
21feb 2025
By OLIVIER CIZA | PROJECT LEADER
By Olivier ciza | Project leader
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