Sad about the beach

Our group of students, 9 Americans and 10 Senegalese, went to the Yoff beach to look at the sanitation problems. The beaches could be the most beautiful in Dakar if it wasn’t for the fact that the beach is used as a garbage dumping ground. The sand is covered in things as egg shells, aluminum containers, clothing, large plastic rice sacks, tires, little plastic baggies, pieces of blue plastic, animal waste, and dead fish. The sand is literally covered in this garbage and some of the garbage is floating around in the water. Sections of the beach are used as the launching dock for fisherman who dump their garbage everywhere and keep goats on the beach. They defecate everywhere as do the wild dogs and cats who roam the sand in search for food. Another problem is that households not only dump their trash on the beach but they also dump the water they use for washing clothing and dishes. This “gray water” is a contaminator and is bad for the ocean and the sand.

The reason why people use the beach as a landfill is complicated. One reason is that Yoff is completely overcrowded. It is set up like a village but is really the size of a small city. People come here and work for a small time in Dakar and live in Yoff then leave. They, of course, don’t care about what happens to Yoff and don’t help to clean it up. The streets are narrow making it difficult for garbage trucks to pass. The garbage trucks have to go very far to drop the garbage off and there is limited infrastructure so they come wherever and as infrequently as they can. Another reason why people dirty up the beach is because they know that some organization will come and clean it up if it gets too out of control. Instead of educating people why throwing garbage on the beach is terrible, these organizations rally people and host weekends dedicated to beach clean-up. It is a Band-Aid to a larger graver problem.