Abidjan landfill transformed into city parkland
For residents of this eastern neighborhood, covering over a landfill area, opened in 1965 and closed in 2018, is a blessing. The new park spans some 100 hectares (250 acres), affording the rapidly urbanizing city of some six million people an all too rare green space.
After five years of construction, the urban park is ready to open, though an official date has yet to be confirmed. The radical change of scenery is a boon as the previous dumping of hazardous toxic waste had been a source of health, environmental and safety problems.
This aerial view shows the former Akouedo landfill that has now been turned into a park in Abidjan.
This aerial view shows the former Akouedo landfill that has now been turned into a park in Abidjan.--AFP photos
This aerial view shows the former Akouedo landfill that has now been turned into a park.
Pedestrians walk at the former Akouedo landfill that has now been turned into a park.
Pedestrians walk at the former Akouedo landfill that has now been turned into a park.
Pedestrians walk at the former Akouedo landfill that has now been turned into a park.
Pedestrians walk at the former Akouedo landfill that has now been turned into a park.
'Good to breathe'
'We suffered a lot,' Celestine Maile, who has lived in Akouedo for more than 30 years, told AFP. Today, 'it feels good to breathe,' she said, beaming, taking a look around the transformed surroundings. 'There were mountains of garbage, and underneath, water used to flow everywhere,' she recalled, of how things once were.
Along with the exposure to odors and pests, the landfill constituted 'a major public health problem', according to a 2019 study, which Ivorian scientists conducted on the toxicological risks to people living nearby. Its authors recommended the urgent 'closure and rehabilitation' of the site, saying people living in the vicinity were 'clearly exposed to poisoning from pollutants', including lead, mercury and carcinogenic chromium.
Exposure to such pollution also helped give rise to conditions such as malaria, gastroenteritis and respiratory problems, the researchers said. 'The garbage caused illnesses,' stressed Maile, who said she suffers from eye problems linked to decades of living near the dump. Akouedo had also become a haven for drug dealing where assaults were common, she added.
A construction worker sits on a bench at the former Akouedo landfill that has now been turned into a park.
Pedestrians walk at the former Akouedo landfill that has now been turned into a park in Abidjan on August 1, 2025. (Photo by Issouf SANOGO / AFP)
Pedestrians sit on a bench at the former Akouedo landfill that has now been turned into a park.
A quantity surveyor works at the former Akouedo landfill that has now been turned into a park.
This aerial view shows the former Akouedo landfill that has now been turned into a park.
'Cemetery' resurrected
'That dump really felt like a cemetery,' said Severin Alobo, who heads the office of the traditional chief of the Akouedo district. For Alobo, the creation of Akouedo Park has brought 'repair' to the neighborhood. 'The name Akouedo will no longer be associated with a landfill, but with a beautiful urban park,' declared Ivorian Minister of Hydraulics, Sanitation and Health Bouake Fofana. 'What was lost has been largely regained,' he added.
The minister said that 750 direct and indirect jobs had been created as a result of the project, which also includes a market, a middle school and the renovation of two kilometers (1.3 miles) of neighborhood roads. Financed by the Ivorian government to the tune of 124 billion CFA francs ($221 million, 189 million euros), the overhaul also has an environmental component.
The waste stored under the park will now be used for energy resources thanks to a drainage and capture system. Biogas and liquids resulting from the fermentation of the 53 million tons of accumulated waste are transported to a plant to be converted into electricity to power the park and part of the national grid.
The park has an 'Environmental House' too, which Fofana said would host events on contemporary environmental issues. Visitors will be able to play sports in the park, which includes a tennis court and two football pitches. There is also a large footbridge that winds through an embryonic tropical forest and shared vegetable gardens.
Like many rapidly urbanizing African cities grappling with the challenge of managing waste, Abidjan has found a new, bigger substitute for the Akouedo landfill. Long the city's only waste storage site, it has been replaced by one with four times as much storage capacity in the Abidjan suburb of Kossihouen. — AFP
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Kuwait Times
3 hours ago
- Kuwait Times
Women bear brunt of Afghanistan's water scarcity
SHIBAR: In a remote Afghan village, women strap yellow plastic jerry cans to donkeys and travel every day down a dusty canyon to collect as much water as they can. The containers hold barely enough for drinking, let alone for the hygiene needs of the roughly 30 people living in Qavriyak, central Bamiyan province. 'There is not enough water to clean or take a shower daily and we don't have hygienic toilets,' said 26-year-old Masooma Darweshi. It's a struggle faced by parched settlements across much of the country. Afghans are experiencing the climate crisis through water, international organizations warn, emphasizing that women are particularly at risk. Women and girls traditionally make the increasingly long trips to collect water, made more difficult since the Taleban government came to power and imposed restrictions on women's movement, education and work. Women are the primary caregivers in Afghan households, tending to children, the sick and elderly as well as domestic chores. 'Water is women's business,' Shukria Attaye, a school teacher in a village above Darweshi's, told AFP. 'Cooking, cleaning dishes, fetching water, washing clothes, taking care of the kids, bathing them — it's all on women.' BOLAK: An Afghan woman with children takes a break as they haul water cans on wheelbarrows along a deserted street in the drought-ridden village of Bolak. 'Unaware of proper hygiene' At the top of the canyon with sides stained by a now-dry stream, Attaye's village's fortunes changed when non-governmental organization Solidarites International provided toilets and a clean water source. 'Women used to carry big gallons on their backs, causing back problems' as they hiked thirty minutes each way to collect water or take dishes and clothes for washing, said Attaye. The children used to get sick often from water contaminated by human and animal waste, contributing to one of the highest rates of malnutrition in the world, particularly among children and mothers. The UN children's agency UNICEF said in May approximately 31 percent of Afghans do not have access to basic drinking water and 42 percent do not have access to basic hygiene services, with the burden weighing 'most heavily on girls and women'. The Taleban authorities dispute the UN figures but have implemented their own projects on water management and hygiene, water ministry spokesman Motiullah Abid told AFP. Improving hygiene awareness and disease rates 'won't be solved in just five or six months, addressing them requires sustained effort', said Aziza Shuja, who has worked on women's health issues across her native Bamiyan for years, carrying out hundreds of hygiene training sessions with Solidarites International. 'Many women said they had previously been unaware of proper hygiene,' with diarrhea and skin conditions rife, said Shuja, who trained in gynaecology. But a cultural reluctance to publicly address women's health and a ban on girls' education beyond primary school have contributed to a lack of knowledge and poor access to women healthcare providers. 'More problems than men' Darweshi said the women in her village get ill often, but it is a long and bumpy ride to the nearest clinic — a journey often taken by donkey or motorcycle. 'Sometimes, when women get their periods, they complain of pain in their kidneys or abdomen,' Darweshi said, blaming infections from lack of water for hygiene. Disposable pads are out of reach for the poor family, which did not have enough water this year to grow crops. The fine line many families walk between getting by and desperation in a country facing one of the world's worst humanitarian crises after decades of war, is stark in the face of increasing climate risks, like droughts and floods. In neighbouring Maidan Wardak province, Gol Babo and her daughter said they would have to cut dirty clothes into strips to use when they menstruated after a flash flood clogged the Chinzai village's already limited water source. 'Women have more problems than men, of course,' she told AFP. 'There is only enough water for drinking ... Everything is laying outside dirty, there is no water to clean anything.' — AFP
Kuwait Times
a day ago
- Kuwait Times
Lebanese craftsman keeps up tradition of tarboosh hat-making
Nestled among shops in a bustling market in north Lebanon's Tripoli, Mohammed Al-Shaar is at his workshop making traditional tarboosh hats, keeping up a family craft despite dwindling demand. With a thimble on one finger, Shaar, 38, cuts, sews and carefully assembles the pieces of the conical, flat-topped felt hat also known as a fez, attaching a tassel to the top. Reputedly the last tarboosh craftsman in Lebanon, the Tripoli native has been making the hats for 25 years in know-how passed on by his grandfather. 'Our family has been carrying on this craft for 125 years,' said Shaar, who also studied tarboosh making in Egypt. The brimless hats made with maroon, black or green felt, some bearing floral motifs or embroidered with Lebanon's national emblem, the cedar, sit on display in the small workshop. While the tarboosh has been around in Lebanon for several centuries, it became particularly common during the late Ottoman period. 'The tarboosh used to have great value -- it was part of day-to-day dress, and the Lebanese were proud of it,' Shaar said, noting the hat now is largely seen as a traditional item or appealing to tourists. 'Nowadays, people barely wear the tarboosh, except for traditional events,' he said. Lebanese craftsman Mohammed Al-Shaar uses a heated mold to shape the ratan interior of a tarboosh, also known as 'fez', at his workshop. Lebanese craftsman Mohammed Al-Shaar wets a piece of felt used for making a tarboosh, also known as 'fez', at his workshop. Lebanese craftsman Mohammed Al-Shaar measures the ratan interior of a tarboosh, also known as 'fez', at his workshop. Lebanese craftsman Mohammed Al-Shaar sews the brim of a tarboosh, also known as 'fez', at his workshop. Lebanese craftsman Mohammed Al-Shaar uses a heated mold to shape the felt of a tarboosh, also known as 'fez', at his workshop. Lebanese craftsman Mohammed Al-Shaar cuts the brim of a tarboosh, also known as 'fez', at his workshop. Lebanese craftsman Mohammed Al-Shaar brushes a newly-made tarboosh, also known as 'fez', at his workshop. Lebanese craftsman Mohammed Al-Shaar poses wearing a traditional outfit and a tarboosh, also known as 'fez', at his workshop in the northern Lebanese costal city of Tripoli.--AFP photos Lebanese craftsman Mohammed Al-Shaar sews a tassel on a tarboosh, also known as 'fez', at his workshop. As well as a onetime symbol of prestige or social status, the hat was used for non-verbal communication, Shaar said. 'When a man wanted to woo a beautiful young woman, he used to slightly tip his tarboosh to the left or right,' he said, while knocking someone's tarboosh off was offensive. As successive crises have hit Lebanon, including a catastrophic 2020 port explosion in Beirut and a recent war between Israel and Hezbollah, tourism has diminished. Shaar said his 'work has slowed, and demand for the tarboosh has dropped' as a result. Sales have plummeted to just four or five of his handmade hats a month compared to around 50 before the crisis, he said. Recent customers have mainly been music and dance troops, or religious figures who wear the tarboosh covered with a turban. Shaar said he used to employ three others but now works alone, selling his handmade hats for around $30. But he said he wasn't about to close up shop or abandon his passion for tarboosh making. 'I feel like my soul is linked to this craft. I don't want to shut or to stop working,' he said. — AFP
Kuwait Times
3 days ago
- Kuwait Times
Abidjan landfill transformed into city parkland
Beneath the fresh grass and brand-new infrastructure of Abidjan's Akouedo Park lie millions of tons of waste that for decades plagued locals' lives and health. Transforming landfill into recreational spaces -- turning trash into landscaped treasure -- has become something of a trend in recent years from New York to New Zealand. Abidjan, Ivory Coast's bustling economic hub, has now enthusiastically got in on the act. For residents of this eastern neighborhood, covering over a landfill area, opened in 1965 and closed in 2018, is a blessing. The new park spans some 100 hectares (250 acres), affording the rapidly urbanizing city of some six million people an all too rare green space. After five years of construction, the urban park is ready to open, though an official date has yet to be confirmed. The radical change of scenery is a boon as the previous dumping of hazardous toxic waste had been a source of health, environmental and safety problems. This aerial view shows the former Akouedo landfill that has now been turned into a park in Abidjan. This aerial view shows the former Akouedo landfill that has now been turned into a park in Abidjan.--AFP photos This aerial view shows the former Akouedo landfill that has now been turned into a park. Pedestrians walk at the former Akouedo landfill that has now been turned into a park. Pedestrians walk at the former Akouedo landfill that has now been turned into a park. Pedestrians walk at the former Akouedo landfill that has now been turned into a park. Pedestrians walk at the former Akouedo landfill that has now been turned into a park. 'Good to breathe' 'We suffered a lot,' Celestine Maile, who has lived in Akouedo for more than 30 years, told AFP. Today, 'it feels good to breathe,' she said, beaming, taking a look around the transformed surroundings. 'There were mountains of garbage, and underneath, water used to flow everywhere,' she recalled, of how things once were. Along with the exposure to odors and pests, the landfill constituted 'a major public health problem', according to a 2019 study, which Ivorian scientists conducted on the toxicological risks to people living nearby. Its authors recommended the urgent 'closure and rehabilitation' of the site, saying people living in the vicinity were 'clearly exposed to poisoning from pollutants', including lead, mercury and carcinogenic chromium. Exposure to such pollution also helped give rise to conditions such as malaria, gastroenteritis and respiratory problems, the researchers said. 'The garbage caused illnesses,' stressed Maile, who said she suffers from eye problems linked to decades of living near the dump. Akouedo had also become a haven for drug dealing where assaults were common, she added. A construction worker sits on a bench at the former Akouedo landfill that has now been turned into a park. Pedestrians walk at the former Akouedo landfill that has now been turned into a park in Abidjan on August 1, 2025. (Photo by Issouf SANOGO / AFP) Pedestrians sit on a bench at the former Akouedo landfill that has now been turned into a park. A quantity surveyor works at the former Akouedo landfill that has now been turned into a park. This aerial view shows the former Akouedo landfill that has now been turned into a park. 'Cemetery' resurrected 'That dump really felt like a cemetery,' said Severin Alobo, who heads the office of the traditional chief of the Akouedo district. For Alobo, the creation of Akouedo Park has brought 'repair' to the neighborhood. 'The name Akouedo will no longer be associated with a landfill, but with a beautiful urban park,' declared Ivorian Minister of Hydraulics, Sanitation and Health Bouake Fofana. 'What was lost has been largely regained,' he added. The minister said that 750 direct and indirect jobs had been created as a result of the project, which also includes a market, a middle school and the renovation of two kilometers (1.3 miles) of neighborhood roads. Financed by the Ivorian government to the tune of 124 billion CFA francs ($221 million, 189 million euros), the overhaul also has an environmental component. The waste stored under the park will now be used for energy resources thanks to a drainage and capture system. Biogas and liquids resulting from the fermentation of the 53 million tons of accumulated waste are transported to a plant to be converted into electricity to power the park and part of the national grid. The park has an 'Environmental House' too, which Fofana said would host events on contemporary environmental issues. Visitors will be able to play sports in the park, which includes a tennis court and two football pitches. There is also a large footbridge that winds through an embryonic tropical forest and shared vegetable gardens. Like many rapidly urbanizing African cities grappling with the challenge of managing waste, Abidjan has found a new, bigger substitute for the Akouedo landfill. Long the city's only waste storage site, it has been replaced by one with four times as much storage capacity in the Abidjan suburb of Kossihouen. — AFP
