Two-Face of Saint Louis City

A weekend visit of extreme contrasts: the UNESCO world heritage city is hosting the 20th edition of the International Jazz Festival and the 10th edition of the pan African Art biennale, with bands, artist and visitors coming from all other the world. The scene and sound are world class. The expositions invite you to a journey of modern African art. The hotels and the restaurants are full with tourists enjoying the taste of African-French cuisine, enjoying ? not really …

The nice “mondaine” scenery contrasts with poverty, stinky dust, and resource degradation: Situated not far away from the vibrant scene of the jazz festival and just opposite of the hotels and restaurants, the artisanal fishery village is floating on mountains of waste. The dust of burning waste invades the scenery and covers in grey the usually blue sky over Saint Louis. In the absence of the dust, hundreds of flies - the ugly kind of big flies living from waste - invade your meal in the garden of a fancy restaurant. The air, soil and water pollution is visible everywhere you go, no escape, and no one seems to care. The lethargy of the population to act against the waste reflects the absence of means and tools for a sustainable solution.

After this contrast full weekend, it’s clear more than ever, we need to stop this kind of natural resources’ degradation. We need to deal with the challenges bottom up and support local initiatives dealing with waste treatment. Already a small effort can have a big positive impact. Ecofund will boost your small efforts. In September, we will launch our Ecoforum, which will give you the voice to alert, debate and together to find solutions to the challenges alike the mountains of waste.

Join us and post your impressions, experiences and ideas on our Ecoblog and our Facebook, for our green future!

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