What about Climate Change in Senegal?

Xam-xam sorewal, dafa laqu.~Wolof Proverb***

I am very interested in how different parts of the world are handling the massive changes occurring due to climate change. While visiting schools and talking to people, I listened for awareness and for action. Saint-Louis, the city where I spent time visiting schools, is situated in the mouth of the Senegal River where it meets the Atlantic Ocean on two islands. Right away one can witness shifting land, evidence of sea level rise coming in over land and causing people to move, and the push and pull of changing rainy and dry seasons.

While visiting schools, I would ask teachers how the topic of climate change was taught. Every single time, the answer was some version of an environmental club that met after school to pick up trash around campus. In other words, climate change is not actually in any of the curriculum, but students are compelled and taking action to improve the environment around them.

My host teacher did bring up climate change himself on two different occasions. The first was while visiting one of Senegal’s busiest and most crowded fishing centers at the tip of Saint-Louis. The bustling area consisted of many traditional Senegalese fishing boats returning with their catches, crowds of people to begin processing and packaging the fish, temporary housing for those working and living right next to the docks, and children and goats in the middle of everything.

My host teacher was quick to point out that the catches are smaller as time continues and that fishermen are having to go farther and farther out just to find fish worth netting. Almost all trash is just thrown out wherever people happen to be standing, and the pollution in the air from the many small engines on boats and mopeds is alarming. From what I can tell, many people are feeling and even recognizing some of the effects of climate change but are not connecting cause with effect.

Later in the week we visit the actual spot where the Senegal River meets the Atlantic Ocean, a more remote part of the city with wide and sandy beaches dotted with small villages and fishing boats. On our walk we run into a friend of Dominique’s, a retired teacher who, as is customary in Senegal, pauses with us to talk and tell stories. After hearing about his family, he shares with us the story of the spot we are standing on. A terrible storm less than ten years ago had created such enormous waves, that almost every building along the beach for miles was damaged or washed away. He even drew a picture in the sand to help us better understand what he was talking about.

He speaks eloquently about the destruction that has been happening and will probably continue to happen because of climate change. He speaks to plastics and trash as a big problem in Senegal as well, pointing to a large scattering of it along the beach.

He believes this trash is coming from the United States, getting caught up in currents that wash it up onto the Senegalese beaches. I look through some of it and quickly realize all of the product names and labels are in French — definitely not from the States.

Trash itself is a big problem in Senegal (as it is in all countries). The country does not have much of a trash collection infrastructure, and most trash is deposited in large dumps in the middle of populated areas.

These dumps are really there for two purposes: collecting the trash in one area and burning it. All trash is handled through either large burns in these public dumps or at home by individual families.

Though the problem may look different, I realized just how much Senegal and the States have in common in trying to deal with a fast-growing population and the amassing of trash. I am inspired to seek solutions for this locally and globally with my students in the coming school year!

***Knowledge is not far away; it is hidden.~Wolof Proverb