Madar (Nouakchott) - Clean-up campaigns have been multiplying in Nouakchott in recent days, from party and municipal initiatives to a large government operation on the beach, while Prime Minister Mokhtar Ould Djay has admitted that the city's cleanliness "is not satisfactory", after months of official warnings to the company responsible for the service.
On Sunday, October 18, 2026, the government launched a campaign to clean 30 kilometres of the capital's coastline across eight sites, with about 2,000 volunteers from government departments and civil society, coordinated by the Environment Ministry until October 24.
The ruling El Insaf party had launched a volunteer campaign on Saturday across Nouakchott's nine municipalities, Arafat municipality ran a similar operation, and the Ministry of Islamic Affairs asked imams to devote the Friday sermon of October 16 to "cleanliness in Islam".
The moves follow President Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani's call on September 26 for a "comprehensive national drive for cleanliness, environmental protection and the appearance of cities", followed on October 3 by West Nouakchott region's "Citizen Charter for cleanliness".
During a field visit on Saturday, the prime minister said the state of cleanliness was unsatisfactory. Interior Minister Mohamed Ahmed Ould Mohamed Lemine had already called Nouakchott's cleanliness "totally unacceptable" at an emergency meeting on August 3 with managers of Arma Mauritanie, the company responsible for the service, which he held fully responsible.
The minister delegate for decentralisation, Yacoub Ould Salem Vall, met the capital's mayors on August 28 and September 16 to assess the company's work, organise primary waste collection and regulate the use of carts and tricycles.
The problem predates this: in April 2025, the public procurement regulator cancelled, for the second time in a row, the Nouakchott cleaning contract awarded to a Moroccan company, following appeals. In April 2026, a plan was launched for nine temporary waste dumps across the capital's municipalities.
For residents, the question remains: will the one-off campaigns lead to a lasting system for collecting and transporting waste, in which contractors are held accountable for results?
