Gestion des déchets solides municipaux à l’épreuve du partenariat public-privé à Bafoussam, Cameroun: Une analyse des inégalités environnementales dans une ville moyenne d’Afrique subsaharienne

Des inégalités sociales face à la gestion de l’environnement urbain sont de plus en plus marquées dans le monde en développement dont l’Afrique subsaharienne. Confrontées à la production croissante des déchets solides et à la pollution engendrée, la plupart des villes africaines connaissent depuis quelques décennies des changements dans les systèmes de gouvernance, engageant notamment le secteur privé dans le service de propreté urbaine. Cette thèse cherche à comprendre comment les inégalités environnementales se construisent en milieu urbain autour de la collecte, du transport, et de la mise en décharge des déchets solides municipaux dans le cadre d’un partenariat public-privé. La présente recherche combine différentes approches théoriques et méthodologiques associées aux questions d’inégalités et de justice environnementales en ville, en s’inspirant du champ de réflexion plus large de la urban political ecology. Elle permet ainsi d’examiner les facteurs de production des inégalités environnementales à travers des liens de pouvoir et de politique entre institutions et acteurs de déchets. Plus précisément, elle analyse les causes du rendu partiel du service de propreté urbaine dans les quartiers planifiés et non planifiés de Bafoussam, ville moyenne et capitale régionale de l’ouest Cameroun. Des méthodes quantitatives et surtout qualitatives, y compris l’observation participante, mobilisées dans l’étude permettent d’interroger la société urbaine, mais aussi les pouvoirs publics et privés, ainsi que les pratiques quotidiennes d’une complexité d’acteurs et de secteurs formels et informels dans leurs itinéraires et espaces urbains respectifs autour d’une ressource à la fois disputée et rejetée. La thèse s’appuie sur plusieurs enquêtes de terrain effectuées sur environ huit mois entre 2014 et 2016 auprès de différents acteurs de la gestion des déchets, notamment la société privée HYSACAM (Hygiène et Salubrité du Cameroun) dans la ville de Bafoussam. Les résultats indiquent que le circuit des déchets (du point de production à la mise en décharge, y compris les espaces de collecte et de transport) traduit diverses formes d’inégalités liées à l’accès au service de propreté urbaine, aux pratiques de collecte, mais aussi à l’exposition de certains groupes d’habitants à la pollution de la décharge municipale. Les processus d’urbanisation et de la fragmentation urbaine entrainent des inégalités variées selon le cadre socioéconomique, institutionnel et politique qui entoure les nombreux acteurs de la chaîne de gestion de déchets. Ces inégalités sont pacifiquement combattues par les urbains dont les habitants du quartier de la décharge municipale. La thèse soutient que l’analyse de la gestion des déchets solides municipaux sous l’intervention d’un partenariat public-privé dans les espaces de la ville intermédiaire d’Afrique subsaharienne ne rend pas exclusivement compte d’une formule salvatrice de l’amélioration de la qualité de l’environnement urbain, mais permet de retracer les moments de production des inégalités environnementales en milieu urbain. Abstract: Social inequalities in the management of the urban environment have become more pronounced in the developing world, including sub-Saharan Africa. Confronted with an increasing production of solid waste and pollution, most African cities have been experiencing changes in governance systems over the last few decades, increasingly engaging the private sector for urban cleanliness services. This thesis thus seeks to understand how urban environmental inequalities are produced around the collection, transport, and disposal of solid waste under a public-private partnership. To address the key question, this research draws upon a number of theoretical and methodological approaches related to issues of urban inequality and environmental justice, inspired by the broader field of urban political ecology. It examines factors relating to environmental inequalities through the relations of power and politics between institutions and waste stakeholders. More specifically, this thesis analyses the causes of the uneven urban cleanliness service in the planned and unplanned areas of Bafoussam, a medium-sized city and the regional capital of western Cameroon. Quantitative and especially qualitative methods, including participant observation, were used to study urban society, public and private authorities and assess daily practices of a complexity of actors within formal and informal sectors in their respective itineraries and urban spaces around both disputed and rejected resource. The empirical papers are based on eight months of fieldwork carried out in Bafoussam city between 2014 and 2016 with various stakeholders in the waste management chain, especially the private company HYSACAM (Hygiene and Sanitation of Cameroon). Our results indicate that the waste circuits, from the point of production to the depositing at the landfill, reflect various forms of inequalities related to the access to urban cleanliness service, collection practices and the pollution exposures near the municipal landfill. These inequalities occur within the process of urbanization and urban fragmentation along socio-economic, institutional and political lines. The environmental inequalities in Bafoussam involve numerous actors of the waste (management change) and are peacefully fought by poor urban citizens settled near the municipal dumpsite. The thesis argues that the public-private partnership in Bafoussam is no panacea for municipal solid waste management and for the improvement of urban environment quality. However, the analysis reveals the process and the moments of the production of environmental inequalities associated with municipal solid waste service in urban areas

Hunting for tonnage: waste workers' incentives in a public-private partnership in Bafoussam, Cameroon

Public-private partnerships are often depicted as an effective institutional arrangement to improve urban services towards sustainable development. In sub-Saharan Africa, the involvement of private parties in municipal solid waste management is believed to bring in technical, managerial and financial capabilities, which municipalities generally lack. However, several studies revealed that access to privatised waste collection services is often unequal and disfavouring unplanned settlements. This research contributes to an understanding of the production of such socio-spatial inequalities and injustices through public-private partnerships by specifically looking at the everyday collection practices of formal waste workers employed by Hysacam, the private company in charge of waste management services in the medium-sized city of Bafoussam and elsewhere in Cameroon. Drawing primarily upon qualitative data, including participant observation, the paper shows how the weight-based collection target, prescribed in the tripartite partnership contract between the central government, the municipality and Hysacam that theoretically should cover the whole urban area, produced perverse incentives at various scales for uneven garbage collection in Bafoussam. More generally, this case study points to the importance of considering workers and their everyday practices, as well as incentives and accountabilities, for the design of sustainable and socially just solid waste management

On the (In)visibility of Practices: Opportunities for the Promotion of Household Waste-Segregation in Western Switzerland

Organic waste is both a refuse and a resource. Focusing on household waste in a city in Western Switzerland, this study examines the practices of waste segregation in relation to the city’s (organic) waste management system. Based on qualitative research with diverse households and experts in waste management, we use social practice theory to discuss the meanings and materiality of household organic waste segregation. We show how more or less visible meanings, tied up with material arrangements, can be either enablers or deterrents for such forms of waste management. The article argues that certain aspects of the waste system could be rendered more visible, such as the proper labelling of collection bins, while less visibility could be given to certain meanings around waste segregation, such as the financial cost of not sorting. We also discuss how organic waste sorting, as a practice, contests the dominant understandings of change based on technological efficiency, economic benefits, and individual changes. More collective forms of change are needed, working at the level of social contexts and materiality, to further support organic waste sorting