senegal at a crossroads: economic prosperity or climate protection? 

“in electing me, the people of senegal have decided on a break with the past,” said bassirou diomaye faye in the first interview after his election as the president of the small but geostrategically important nation in western africa. 

in the midst of the “free sudan” and “free congo” movements, an amplified focus on african struggles has echoed through the american and european publics. meanwhile, senegal has also had a glimmer of hope to remedy some of the problems that have burdened its people in recent decades. 

in 2023, the country’s youth mobilized in protests aimed at opposing the efforts of then-president macky sall to stay in power for longer than two mandates, and in 2024 the country elected its youngest president to date, diomaye faye, as part of a leftist movement that promises to eradicate corruption and increase economic justice. 

however, one particular dilemma has arisen: is the move toward more progressive economic policies harmful to the environment? or must a break from the past be accompanied by environmentalism? 

such questions have become pressing particularly as the new administration has promised to begin working with australia’s woodside lng, a liquified natural gas company and a large contributor to fossil fuel pollution, to ensure that senegal’s natural resources are utilized to increase the nation’s prosperity. 

pollution is a persistent problem

long before the election of diomaye faye, pollution has been a problem, especially in the capital city of dakar. walking through dakar, one may walk past market stands full of fruits and vegetables, bustling streets filled with people proudly donning traditional clothing, and speedy motorcycles zooming through the busy traffic. 

but exploring the city quickly turns painful due to the immense amount of smog generated by second-hand cars brought from european countries and burning trash. in 2019, prior to the pandemic, bbc reported that air pollution levels were exceeding by more than seven times the world health organization’s limits of particulate matter (pm), and according to the united nations environment programme the situation has only worsened since.

with the capital city of dakar already struggling with decreasing air quality, what do people in senegal have to say about the choice between progress in the western sense and the promise of additional revenue versus the need to preserve the peoples’ and climate’s health? 

kéba djibril mané, who teaches french, wolof, and several other languages spoken in africa to foreign students affiliated with the peace corps and additional international programs in the city of dakar, said he is appalled about the pollution situation in senegal.  

“pollution has reached an extraordinary level,” he said. “i know many people who have health problems because of pollution. and this pollution is largely due to cars. you wait for a taxi in the street. a car passes, but there is smoke. everyone is affected.” 

a choice between health and opportunity

beyond his passion for languages, djibril mané is also interested in politics because he has seen the effects pollution can have on health and wants to see this issue being addressed effectively by the country’s leaders. his sister-in-law, the wife of his older brother, became sick from the air pollution in dakar. because she developed a respiratory disease, he said, her family had to move to a rural area where there are fewer economic opportunities but the air is cleaner.

stories like that of djibril mané’s sister-in-law are common in dakar. in an article published in the new york times in 2019,  the chief of the pulmonology unit at a hospital in the capital of senegal was quoted stating that asthma is one of the main childhood diseases in the city and that over a third of the city’s population has some form of lung disease. 

moreover, according to an article published in the journal of pulmonary and respiratory medicine in 2019, there is a direct correlation between the poor air quality and the prevalence of respiratory manifestation in dakar. 

specifically, during a six year period (2011 to 2016), nearly 350,000 patients in dakar were treated for respiratory symptoms, which gradually increased over time. the manifestation of both upper and lower respiratory diseases was strongly correlated with exposure to sulfur dioxide (so2) and nitrogen dioxide (no2). due to the poor quality of the air in dakar, children and adults were likely to not only contract a range of respiratory illnesses, from cough and acute respiratory infection to asthma, bronchitis, and angina, but also to have persistent forms of such diseases and recurrent outbreaks.

mask up to protect against (covid) toxic air quality

according to djibril mané, pollution has become such a prevalent issue that many have realized the masks of the covid era should be worn all year around for protection not against viruses but against the toxic substances in the air. 

“you have to hide your face in your sleeve, we cover our faces like that after about a minute on the street. even today, there are people who wear masks,” he said. “now, people are used to the masks because of covid, and covid came and went, but people have continued to wear masks. i have. if you ask why you want to put on the mask again, it is very useful, not only to protect yourself against covid, but for dust, pollution in general during the day. when i go to town, there are too much dust, fumes, toxic gases, etc.”

djibril mané said he is aware that second-hand cars constitute one of the biggest sources of pollution in senegal and overall in africa. he also knows a key reason for this pollution is that european nations such as france impose bans on older cars, but that countries in africa then import those refurbished cars from europe. 

“it’s not just cars by the way, it’s a lot of things. many things are imported second-hand, there are tvs like that, large or small. there are refrigerators and there are gas stoves and other materials which are not within the environmental standards at the international level, they are prohibited for use in europe,” he said. “when they can no longer use them in france, they say ok, we cannot use them in france, but we will use them among africans.”

“not good for health. what should we do instead of destroying them? recycle them?” djibril mané said.

“there is the buñuul. it means black in wolof. this is what french people call africans pejoratively. he’s a wolof. it is the only wolof word that is in the french lexicon.”

“france has the right to choose that it needs good health for its population and it needs a good environment for its population. but africa doesn’t have that right. this is the inhumanity, the lack of humanism, of neocolonialism.”

while djibril mané is not opposed to developing new economic opportunities such as those related to natural gas, he thinks the association with western companies for such endeavors will not lead to success. he said he views western countries and companies as entities that seek to keep africa in poverty and africans marred by disease both by exporting used products to africa and by exploiting africa’s natural resources.

‘everything they do on other continents, they don’t do in africa the same’

“unfortunately, western policy toward africa is much more based on racism, because often everything they do on other continents, they don’t do in africa the same,” he said. 

el hadji faly, a college student who is interested in the betterment of african youth, mental health, and environmental action, and who published the book therapy is banned in africa, is somewhat more optimistic about environmental aspects in senegal. 

in high school, hadji faly had the opportunity to live and learn in the united states for a year and to compare the environmental situation in american and african settings. moreover, in 2023, to continue his studies during the political protests, he transferred from a university in senegal to a university in rwanda, which allowed him to consider how pollution fares across african countries. hadji faly thinks there are both challenges and opportunities in regards to environmental issues in senegal. 

hadji faly acknowledges the negative impact that pollution has long had in dakar. 

“yeah, it was definitely a problem because i have allergies, unfortunately. so when i was living in dakar, it was really tough sometimes because of all the smoke coming from the cars and the buses. it really affected my health and wellbeing,” he said.

dakar’s all electric bus fleet 

however, hadji faly also feels that pollution in dakar has come down a little since the introduction of electric buses. the city “just got a bunch of electric buses, but the old ones are still in use,” he said. “if we could get rid of the old ones and keep the electric ones, it would be really good for the environment. i guess it’s a process, but we can get there.”

in march 2024, dakar launched its bus rapid transit (brt) system which the administration claims to be leading the way for african cities. it is a nearly 20-kilometer (approximately 12.5-mile), fully electric bus system that according to the institute for transportation and development policy in dakar is expected to carry 300,000 passengers a day, reduce travel time per person to nearly half, and shift toward zero emission urban transport. with access to public transit, officials hope residents of dakar will use private vehicles less and thus contribute to the improvement of air quality. 

djibril mané agrees that electric buses provide some relief from pollutants, but he also thinks it is too little, too late. 

“this is precisely the problem. we are in the 21st century. those are tools that existed in other countries more than 20 years ago,” he said. 

in his view, senegal should be at the forefront of environmental innovation, but western european countries are not allowing african countries to develop and adopt new technologies at the pace needed to mitigate environmental issues while protecting valuable resources. 

djibril mané points out that  the contracts were actually signed under macky sall regime, and those contracts are disastrous for senegal because the vehicles are imported at high prices, with requirements to be repaired in western european countries, but without contribution from senegalese workers. 

djibril mané particularly fears the lobbying power regarding such economic advancements that disregard local needs of the economic community of west african states (ecowas). 

“we have to be sincere. we africans must know. we know it, the majority know it,” he said. “but there are always lobbies that are there, which do not want the people to follow these ideas,” he said. 

neocolonialism by any other name

“ecowas is not there for the interest of africans. ecowas is there to obey the orders of the settlers and continue to be the long arm, as we call it, of neocolonialism.” 

both djibril mané and el hadji faly believe that the new leadership of senegal will try to provide real solutions for both economic justice and environmental protection. according to djibril mané, the political movement of the new president resonated with youth because of the message “we are poor today, but in reality, we should not not be poor because we have mineral resources, we have human resources, the right people. if we are still poor, it is because a small group of people take the wealth of the country.” 

this movement now has a mandate to address economic issues. one of the critical challenges for the new administration will be to pay attention to justice for those who have been underprivileged while also maintaining mindfulness for environmental aspects. 

elsa park, a u.s. teen who spent 10 months in senegal during the 2023-2024 school year through the u.s. department of state’s kennedy-lugar yes abroad program, agrees that there are opportunities as well as challenges in regard to balancing the need for economic development with mindfulness for environmental action. during her stay in senegal, she saw change as the regime of macky sall was replaced by the new administration of bassirou diomaye faye. high school students were urged to spend multiple saturdays cleaning up their schools and to also participate in cleanups in the city, in their neighborhoods, and on beaches. “for young people, it was nice to feel that you were making a difference,” she said. 

under the new administration of senegal, additional environmental action initiatives have been started. specifically, $5.5 million will be dedicated to promoting environmental health. this will be achieved by reducing the release of unintentional persistent organic pollutants (upops) and toxic chemicals as well as establishing laws for the rational management of urban waste, a major contributor to harmful particle releases. moreover, senegal’s national waste management unit in collaboration with other agencies has installed 18 standardized collection points where communities can deposit their waste.

the united states has taken an interest in collaborating with senegal’s new administration. in july, deputy secretary of state kurt campbell traveled to senegal and met with president diomaye faye and entrepreneurs. campbell highlighted the two nations’ shared dedication to good governance. he announced u.s. investments in senegal’s economy, including the millennium challenge corporation’s $550 million power compact to increase energy access solutions can boost economic growth and help address environmental challenges.

while concerns remain about the government’s collaborations with highly polluting organizations such as australia’s woodside lng, senegalese youth have found grounds to believe that it is possible to increase the prosperity of regular people while also engaging in good stewardship of the environment. 

said hadji faly: “i think we just need good leaders, some people who are ethical and who fight here for the population, not only for themselves.”