Dakar is the largest city and capital of Senegal in West Africa.Located on the Cape Verde Peninsula on the Atlantic coast, Dakar is a major regional port serving transatlantic and European trade.Approximately 2.5 million people live in an area of 550 square kilometres with an average population density of 4,122/km2. Dakar is a youthful city with an average age of 18 years.Though Dakar covers only 0.28% of the national territory, it houses 25%of the national population.Since its designation as the capital of French West Africa in 1902, Dakar has remained a hub for immigration and tourism, while its strategic position has strengthened its cultural, economic and political influence.
Lack of employment, especially amongst youth, is a major obstacle to economic security for many urban-dwellers. Unemployment in Dakar is 17.1% for men and 15.9% for women, with 64.5% of the unemployed between the ages of 15 and 29. There is a sense of exclusion and pessimism for the future amongst the youth of Dakar.
Air quality in Dakar is poor at the moment mostly due to heavy traffic congestion. Although leaded gasoline was scheduled to be phased out by the end of 2005, this has not been entirely accomplished. Unleaded gas is an option, but most motorists still fill up with leaded.
Traffic congestion is a major problem. Construction has begun on a new privately-owned, tolled highway into the city to alleviate traffic jams. The government has also proposed a passenger ferry from Rufisque to downtown Dakar.
Population density and growth will continue to be major obstacles for sustainability in Dakar. 25% of Senegal's population (2.5 million), or 0.28%, live within 550 km 2, or 0.28%, of the country's land mass. Some estimates show Dakar's population reaching 5 million by 2025. More than 60% of the population is under the age of 25.
Despite ecological restoration efforts, Hann Bay and the surrounding waters are increasingly polluted.
The Niaye Ecological Reserve faces increasing encroachments from the pressures of urbanization and risks becoming an ecological catastrophe.
The dump site at Mbeubeuss is in the midst of residential and vulnerable ecological areas. Untreated waste is having a serious impact on the health of the neighbouring population.
Background
Urbanization and its Challenges
The Dakar region has become a metropolitan area that has developed rapidly and anarchically. This trend has been encouraged by the combined effect of the dynamic growth of its population and its role as an economic crossroads and centre for immigration. With the high concentration of population in a small area, the agglomeration of Dakar is truly a human anthill.The urbanization of the region is rarely controlled, which poses enormous problems to the satisfaction of basic needs in housing, land, problems of mobility, deterioration of the natural environment and urban poverty.
This is a reality despite the existence of a multitude of planning documents.Unfortunately such documents have been under-integrated and the planning applied thus far has been insufficient to guide the spatial evolution of the region. For example, from 1946 to 2001, Dakar had four urban master plans prepared in 1946, 1961, 1967 and 2001. The validation of the plan Dakar Horizon 2025 was suspended by authorities and subject to the review of certain data.Additionally, the existing urban mobility plan for the Agglomeration of Dakar (PDUD) is not necessarily considered in the context of the completion of major road works that often managed by specialized agencies. The Master Plan of Development and Conservation of Green areas of Senegal (PDAs) is struggling to establish its true place in the overall urban planning, and the Regional Spatial Planning (SRAT) document provides comprehensive guidance that is not necessarily reflected in the realization of actions on the ground. Finally, measures in the Regional Plan of Integrated Development (PRDI) are not yet effective.
The urban structure in Dakar is characterized by an imbalance of space because of loss of space and lack of effective strategic planning at the regional level. Urban investments made by the state for the region were mostly limited (and continue to be limited) to the city of Dakar, which concentrates the bulk of economic activities and public sector employment at the expense of the suburbs, which include more than half the metropolitan population. This disparity increases traffic between Dakar and its suburbs, thus contributing to the degradation of the environment and quality of life.
Despite the poverty described in the various studies conducted in the Dakar region, there has been a significant expansion of employment between 1988 and 2000.Access to basic services like water, telecommunications, health and education has experienced a marked improvement. The City Development Strategy (CDS) report expects that the majority of benefits will naturally move towards better management of urban services, including garbage collection and housing.
Environment
On the environmental front, despite recent efforts, there has been an increase in pollution in bays, notably Hann Bay. The other major environmental concern is air pollution caused by public transportation’s aging fleet and releases from certain industrial plants such as cement. In addition, the gradual degradation of the coastal zone of Niayes and other sensitive ecological zones may be some of the worst environmental disasters. In recent years an increase in floods has also been witnessed, affecting even areas that have never experienced this phenomenon before. These floods are accompanied by adverse effects on health such as the collapse of buildings, which is the result of a vertical development of Dakar to compensate for the lack of space. Finally, we cannot talk about environmental problems in Dakar without mentioning the problem of the Mbeubeuss dump, which is surrounded by settlements and farms.
Housing and Land Use
Housing and land remain serious issues for governance in terms of access (meeting demand), management (the evolution of urbanization) and taxation (price inflation and land speculation). Important factors include steadily increasing demand for housing, dwindling land reserves, red tape, high taxation, cost of materials, and difficult access to credit. The growth of land speculation and housing costs within the past few decades has been exponential. Finally, suburbanization is a serious problem requiring political restructuring and adjustment.
Transportation
Urban mobility in Dakar remains one of the most difficult areas to manage..The informal sector has gradually occupied the space vacated by structured companies. Transportation is characterized by poor organization of professionals, dilapidated vehicles and small businesses. One of the major issues of transportation in Dakar remains the difficult access to and exit from the town centre. The region is a peninsula in the form of a funnel that constricts transport networks.
Urban transportation leads to high air pollution due to dilapidated vehicles and to traffic flows between Dakar and its suburbs. Costs associated with dysfunctional urban transport remain high. Fortunately, the central state and its partners for improving mobility in Dakar are undertaking important works such as new highways and passenger ferries.
Economy
On the economic front, there is a contrast between the area marked by its small size and its multiple economic, political and administrative functions. Dakar concentrates the bulk of domestic economic activities and its GDP is about 2724 billion CFA francs, representing 60% of the wealth created within the national territory. But the level of local levy on the wealth produced in the Agglomeration of Dakar remains very low despite the increasing development budgets of major local communities that make up the Dakar region. The strong power of the central state is felt at all levels despite a decentralization that has strengthened local institutions.
Governance and Decetralization
All of these challenges must be faced while undergoing the current culture of decentralization in Senegal.The metropolitan governance is characterized by institutional fragmentation, resulting in a sectorialization of local policies and conflict of authority between different levels (administrative and institutional). The pervasiveness of central state authority stifles local autonomy. With decentralization reforms underway, administrative authorities and public services are in decline.
Strategic Planning Initiatives
Long-term Sustainability Plan
The PLUS Network has received funding to strengthen the capacity of local authorities and other stakeholders in the city. A long-term sustainability plan will be developed, with a minimum 30-year horizon.
Sustainable Cities Initiative
Dakar was a partner in the Government of Canada’s Sustainable Cities Initiative (SCI), active from 2003-2006. The steps taken to establish the Dakar SCI included City Team formation, Roadmap building and project implementation. Priority areas of cooperation for Dakar were identified under eight development pillars: water sanitation; urban development, planning and governance; waste management and environment; education and culture; infrastructure and urban mobility; habitation; economic development; connectivity and information technologies.
FAST Actions
Sustainable Dakar Project
In 1993, a workshop to launch the Environmental Planning and Management Process (EPM) lead to the preparation of the Dakar environmental profile by the UN Human Settlement Program. The Sustainable Dakar Project addressed the specific issue of the degradation of Hann Bay.
Hann Bay Beach Reclamation
A sand-cleaning operation started in 2005 by a Senegalese company called Sen-Environmental has been removing, cleansing and replacing a metre-deep layer of sand on the beach on Hann Bay.
Mbeubeuss Landfill
The Institute African de Gestion Urbaine (IAGU), based in Dakar, has been awarded a contract by Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Focus Cities Initiative to work on a project to address environmental problems in neighbourhoods adjacent to the Mbeubeuss dump site. See website.
Aquatic Plants Wastewater Treatment Project
A project by the IDRC in 2002 examined the technical and socioeconomic feasibility of using aquatic plants to treat wastewater for reuse in market gardens in two peri-urban areas of Dakar. In Castor, one of the communities, a variety of fruits and vegetables are grown on-site. Community members, primarily women, finance, operate and maintain the fruit and vegetable plots.
“Dakar, Green City”
One million trees will be planted as part of the “Dakar, Green City” project to redevelop public spaces in the capital.
PLUS Network Partners in Dakar
Environment Development Action in the Third World - ENDA
Institut Africain de Gestion Urbaine - IAGU
Agence de la Proprete du Senegal - APROSEN
Canadian International Development Agecy - CIDA
Reference
Population
Total Population: 2,400,000
Growth Rate: 4%
Population demographics (Senegal):
0-14: 54%
15-64: 43%
65+: 3%
Density: 4,090/km²
% of total national population: 21 %
Life Expectancy
National average (2002): F 58 years / M 55 years
Birth Rate: 35.2 /1000
Death rate: 10.6 /1000
Geography
Area: 550 km²
Latitude: 14’ 40’ N
Longitude: 17’ 25’ W
Altitude: Sea level
The westernmost city on the African continent, located on the Cape Verde peninsula
