Conakry (AFP) – On the Fidel Castro highway and the Le Prince road, the two main arteries of the Guinean capital Conakry, the spectacle is overwhelming: mountains of garbage bags line the roadway, invading the sidewalks. Blackish liquids, mixed with stagnant water, flow out into the middle of the road.

Published on: 06/11/2026 - 09:00

The smell is pestilential, so pungent that it makes the air almost unbreathable. Above the piles, swarms of flies buzz.

These illegal deposits are a threat to the health of residents, potentially contributing to the appearance of illnesses such as cholera.

This situation results from the closure of the city's gigantic landfill, Dar-es-Salam. On the night of August 22 to 23, a landslide in the landfill caused by heavy rains, which swept away precarious local housing, left 36 people dead.

This disaster pushed the authorities to definitively condemn the site.

Since then, trash bags and rubbish have been piling up at the foot of homes and under bridges in the capital, illustrating an emerging health crisis.

"We are suffering (...), it's difficult! We can't live with garbage, it's difficult with the smell, there are earthworms; it can even cause illness," warns Mariam Bayo, a resident of Conakry interviewed by AFP.

"Before, they (the garbage collectors, Editor's note) came twice a week" to collect the garbage, "but (currently) it can be three weeks" without them coming, deplores Ms. Bayo, pointing to a pile of waste which she was preparing to set on fire.

A feeling of helplessness shared with a large part of the population, forced to dump their garbage where space allows, for lack of an alternative.

"Last time, my trash can was so full that I had to put it in the trunk of my car and throw it on the side of the road on the way to work..." a resident of the Conakry suburbs told AFP, on condition of anonymity.

“We don’t know where to take them”

The Baritodé site, in Coyah (around fifty kilometers from Conakry), has been favored for several years to collect the approximately 3,000 tonnes of waste produced each day by the capital. But the geographical distance and road traffic jams paralyze its full-time operation.

"The truck, when it leaves here (Conakry, Editor's note) at 8:00 a.m., it goes to Baritodé, 125 kilometers from Conakry. Before it returns, it happens to be 5:00 p.m. or 6:00 p.m.", explains Oumar Pathé Bah, manager of an SME which collects waste, to AFP.

Due to a lack of regular rotation of collection trucks and tricycles, private providers are seeing their turnover collapse.

"I had a thousand and some customers. Today, I don't think I have 500 left. (Many) have unsubscribed (because) we can't work," criticizes Mr. Bah, who is struggling to cover his financial expenses.

"I have more than 16 collectors, 16 pre-collectors, plus the facilitators. I have at least 22 workers who are in my charge. And each end of the month, I am obliged to release 10 million" Guinean francs and some (a little more than 1,000 euros, Editor's note) to pay my workers. (But), it doesn’t work,” he laments.

Faced with this situation, some pre-collection companies are trying to keep their activities afloat. But the major problem is the absence of lasting infrastructure.

“Waste management requires a lot of investment, and when we don't have the means, we can't get into waste management. We don't know where to take all the waste that can't be recycled,” Siriman Condé, of BCEIP Environnement, an SME working in the collection and recovery of waste, explains to AFP.

“Our first difficulties are obtaining a modern and controlled landfill,” he says.

On Monday, Guinean authorities launched rehabilitation work on the Dar-es-Salam landfill. Once the mountain containing 7.2 million tonnes of waste has been stabilized and decontaminated, it will be transformed into a park.

To replace the landfill, a waste landfill is under construction on the Baritode site.

In the meantime, the inhabitants of Conakry and its suburbs continue to suffer from this waste crisis and its health risks.

© 2026 AFP

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