Walking through the streets, avenues and public squares of Nouakchott, the picture is troubling. Many parts of the Mauritanian capital have turned into open air dumping grounds. For a city of roughly 1.45 million people, the situation damages its image and poses a real threat to public health.
The problem is far from new. Since the departure years ago of the French company Pizzorno, which once managed public hygiene in the city, Nouakchott has struggled to find an operator capable of running a reliable waste collection system. Residents of the Riad and Dar Beida neighborhoods regularly describe conditions there as alarming, while the busy corridor linking the Polyclinique area to Toujounine, one of the most heavily trafficked routes in the city, keeps accumulating waste because of nearby markets and a heavy concentration of cart vendors. The sebkhas, the salt depressions that ring the city, have become informal dumping sites for all kinds of refuse, a problem worsened by illegal salt extraction taking place on the same ground.
Health consequences have followed. Several neighborhoods have recently reported a rise in patients suffering from fevers suspected to be linked to dengue, a disease whose spread is closely tied to stagnant water and accumulated waste.
The contract to manage the city’s waste collection has itself become a source of friction. It was first awarded to the Moroccan company SOS NDD, then suspended three times by Mauritania’s public procurement regulator following legal challenges, before finally going to another Moroccan firm, Arma Environnement, in August 2025. Almost as soon as it took over, the company showed shortcomings on the ground, prompting authorities to issue a 48 hour ultimatum demanding corrective action. The episode illustrates the deeper governance problems the city faces in managing its waste.
In response, authorities launched an emergency modernization program for Nouakchott covering 2025 and 2026, led by the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development together with the Ministry of Water and Sanitation. The plan includes redevelopment of several urban ponds, awareness campaigns on waste sorting across the city, and the drafting of an eco responsible charter for public administrations.
On April 19th, 2026, officials laid the foundation stone for the first of nine planned temporary landfills in the Teyaret district, in the presence of the deputy minister overseeing decentralization. The goal is to spread these sites across every commune of the capital and strengthen overall collection capacity.
Even so, many observers remain skeptical about how effective these announcements will prove. Critics point to a familiar pattern in Mauritania, ambitious promises followed by delays, cost overruns and weak implementation. Questions remain unanswered about transparency in awarding public contracts, an area shadowed by past scandals, as well as coordination among the many agencies involved.
Beyond institutional shortcomings, several local voices point to a behavioral problem as well. Residents note that even where trash bins have been installed in public spaces, garbage is often dumped right beside them rather than inside. That, they argue, is a sign that infrastructure alone will not solve the problem. Civic education and public awareness need reinforcement too, drawing on schools, community associations and local leaders to build a lasting culture of cleanliness.
Grassroots projects are also trying to fill the gap. The Zazou sanitation initiative, for instance, aims to build a local plastic waste recycling chain in two outlying communes, generating income for residents of the city’s most vulnerable neighborhoods while reducing pollution.
Caught between a structural crisis, uneven governance and persistent littering, Nouakchott is still searching for the formula that could finally lift it out of its chronic sanitation problem.