Last April, Wathi organized a virtual round table on the theme of transport in the context of accelerated urbanization and climate change.
Yes, we organized this roundtable in partnership with the OECD Sahel and West Africa Club. The Club has notably developed Africapolis, a data analysis and visualization tool that allows us to map, analyze and understand urban growth in Africa.
The African urban population has doubled every 20 years since 1990. In West Africa, the rate of urbanization varies significantly from one country to another but is increasing rapidly everywhere. This rate is lower in Sahelian countries such as Niger with 18% of the population living in a city, Burkina Faso is at 32%, Mali is at 34%. The urbanization rate is 40% in Guinea, 50% in Ghana, 53% in Senegal and Ivory Coast, 58% in Nigeria and Benin, and 61% in Togo.
Urbanization takes the form of the emergence of new cities but political or economic capitals like Lagos, Abidjan, Accra, Dakar continue to attract increasing flows of people. Among the many challenges posed by this accelerated urbanization, that of transport is at the forefront
Absolutely. Tens of thousands of people live far from their workplaces and spend two to three hours every day traveling. Traffic jams are more monstrous every year, despite new road infrastructure. Air pollution, still little measured in West African cities, represents a serious threat to health. And of course, the continued increase in the number of cars generates carbon emissions and contributes to global warming. Electric cars everywhere in West Africa are not for tomorrow.
In two hours of discussion, we provided an overview of the challenges linked to urban transport by giving the floor to four experts, Ousmane Thiam, former director of the Executive Council of Urban Transport of Dakar (CETUD), who is also president of honor of the International Union of Public Transport (UITP), Charlène Kouassi, director of Movin’On LAB Africa, think tank dedicated to urban mobility, Brilé Anderson, environmental economist at the Sahel and West Africa Club and Abdoulaye Maïga, a transport entrepreneur who co-founded a motorcycle taxi company in Bamako.
What are the main avenues for action that emerged from this discussion?
Impossible to recall them all in one minute. I refer listeners to the recording of the roundtable which is available on Wathi’s YouTube channel. We talked about cost which remains the first criterion for choosing modes of transport, which explains the importance of informal modes of transport, minibuses in fairly poor condition but also informal water taxis which operate for example in lagoon transport. in Abidjan alongside three formal operators.
The development of high-capacity public transport is the top priority. Our guests highlighted the positive developments in several West African countries with the first bus rapid transit (BRT) in Lagos, since 2008, and then for a few months in Dakar. These are comfortable, non-polluting buses that save users a lot of time. The regional express train, TER, connecting Dakar, the peripheral municipalities, and soon the airport, the highly anticipated Abidjan metro, are also examples of the development of so-called high-capacity modes of transport. But we must not forget the need to promote cycling and walking, which is the main mode of travel in African cities, despite the often congested sidewalks and pedestrian crossings that are completely ignored by motorists.
For further :
Urbanization and climate change: the future of transport, virtual round table, Wathi and Club du Sahel et de l’Afrique de l’Ouest
