Africa's urban waste crisis is outpacing infrastructure investment and choking neighborhoods

JOHANNEBURG -- Two men sit on top of a hill at the end of a narrow road in Johannesburg ’s industrial suburb of Kya Sands. But the hill is no natural feature — it is a mountain of illegally dumped trash, piled so high it now swallows the road beyond.“When I started as a ward councilor in 2021, this mountain was very small. I could even drive my vehicle down this road,” municipal councilor Devon Steenkamp told The Associated Press. “It’s now quite a high, big mountain; there are always constant fumes.”The mound is only the edge of a dumpsite that mushroomed after the municipal landfill reached capacity and closed in 2010. Adjacent to it, waves of waste spread across a valley as smoke rises and trucks unload more trash.Johannesburg’s mounting waste problem reflects a broader challenge across Africa. Rapidly growing cities, including Lagos, Dakar, and Accra, are generating waste far faster than many municipalities can collect, recycle, or safely dispose of it.Africa’s urban population is projected to double by 2050 to 1.4 billion people, according to a joint report last year by the OECD, African Development Bank, Cities Alliance and United Cities and Local Governments of Africa.The Un...