- Sector : Waste Management
- Location : Senegal

Overview
The Consortium is providing technical assistance to an Integrated Waste Valorization Center in the holy city of Touba, in order to build a Waste-to-Energy Unit capable of producing and delivering 10MW to the Senegalese national power utility grid.
Using waste as fuel for a thermal power plant solves two other problems faced by countries undergoing rapid and dense economic development:
- It reduces the amount of waste entering landfills and the environment; and
- It reduces the imports of petroleum products on which countries’ power plants mostly depend, thus reducing carbon emissions
The Challenge
The city of Touba is located in central Senegal, 194km east of Dakar. It is a fast-growing city and the second most populated Senegalese city after Dakar. It was founded in 1883 by Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba Khadimou Rassoul – it is the holy city of Mouridism (The Mouride Sufi Brotherhood is a modern sect of Islam with over 4 million followers today, mostly concentrated in Senegal and Gambia).
Touba is a sacred area where stands the Great Mosque of Touba, one of the largest mosques in Africa. The Mourides are now constructing and self-funding the largest University in West Africa to teach mainstream academic education.
The city’s current informal landfill is located on a large water table, where waste burial affects water quality and the general sanitation of the city, and this issue is further exacerbated during the Magal pilgrimage, which nowadays attracts over four million pilgrims.
SCF’s Involvement- Technical Assistance
SCF is providing a grant to cover the cost of a legal study to understand the legal framework to invest in the country.
Our Target Impact
The goal of this project is to have positive environmental and social benefits through the maximizing of waste recycling and creating a reliable energy source.
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SDG 13 Climate Action
The project expects to:
- Avoid CO2 emissions compared with a conventional fossil fuel thermal plant.
- Avoid landfill waste, and associated methane emissions, and pollution.
- Use of Fly and Bottom Ash by local cement manufacturers as a substitute for the coal cement manufacturers currently use.
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SDG 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth
Direct and indirect jobs will be created by the project during the construction, operation and maintenance of the plant. Additionally:
- Skill development – number of people trained
- Increased collaboration with the National Waste collection company, SONAGED
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SDG 5 Gender Equality
It is expected that the project will promote gender equality:
- The number of women employed in waste sorting and recycling activities will be at least 50% of employees.
- The project will implement a Gender Action Plan with targets and monitoring procedures to ensure impact, in accordance with SCF Gender Policy.