In Dakar, the seafront gives way under the onslaught of promoters

One morning was enough for the bulldozers to bring down sections of the hill from the Mamelles lighthouse. The site, from where the view is breathtaking, is under assault from property developers, like much of the Dakar waterfront.

At the end of May, a man presented himself with a permit and undertook to dig at the foot of the hill to build a hotel, causing the amazement of the inhabitants and local elected representatives, says Mamadou Mignane Diouf, of the NGO Social Forum.

Yet “here, no one should build,” he says, because the hill, topped by an iconic lighthouse since 1864, is a protected green area.

The Senegalese capital, metropolis of three million inhabitants in rapid expansion under the pressure of the rural exodus, feels more and more cramped on its peninsula which sinks into the Atlantic.

For years, promoters have targeted its postcard shore, erecting luxury hotels and residences and gradually disfiguring the landscape by playing with complex and little applied legislation.

Ordinary Dakar residents complain about this privatization of the coastline, which reduces access to the sea and the beaches in a city sorely lacking in collective leisure spaces.

Electrochoc

The destruction of part of the Mamelles hill, although far from being unprecedented, constituted an electric shock and raised numerous protests.

With the neighboring hill, surmounted by the imposing monument of the African Renaissance, built by North Korea, the two volcanic mounds of a hundred meters high bear the evocative name of “Mamelles”. They are a recognizable element among all of the landscape, to which the Dakarois are attached. Their surroundings are already largely urbanized.

After protests in the press and on social networks, the police interrupted the earthworks, which leaves a gaping hole in the ocher tone.

“They have already caused a lot of damage,” regrets Mr. Diouf, browsing through a pile of rubble and wondering “why some privileged people think that only they have the right to access the coast, to privatize it, to close it and to only allow them and their families access at the expense of other Senegalese. “

The Minister of Town Planning, Abdou Karim Fofana, assures AFP that the government of President Macky Sall, in power since 2012, is working on a new law to protect the coastline.

But the allocation under previous regimes of property titles and building permits means that many real estate projects will probably continue, he explains with a dose of fatalism.

“We must save the unoccupied parts, ensure that the Senegalese and the Dakar population have access to them,” he said.

“The law of the strongest”

A poor country of 16 million inhabitants, Senegal has embarked on a development and modernization program. The construction of motorways, the development of limestone quarries and the all-round construction of housing are weighing on the environment, already damaged by climate change and wild deforestation.

For Marianne Alice Gomis, an elected Dakar specialist in town planning, “the main problem comes from titles related to land ownership”, the cadastre being very incomplete.

The majority of construction in Dakar is illegal, she said, stressing that many officials are ignorant of town planning codes.

Ms. Gomis cites as an example a conflict between her municipality (Dakar subdivision), Mermoz-Sacré-Coeur, and the promoter of an apartment project that would emerge near one of the largest beaches. The municipality of Mermoz claims that the land in dispute is located on its territory. The promoter holds a building permit, but it was issued by a

neighboring municipality.

The mayor of Mermoz, Barthélémy Diaz, qualified the operation “of flagrant aggression on the maritime public domain” and estimated that it “is a significant contribution of this promoter to coastal erosion”. “And that is what is unacceptable,” he added.

Balla Magassa, 43, owns a small bar on what is left of Mamelles Beach, at the foot of the hill. Already surrounded by buildings, he fears being definitively driven out by new projects. “It’s just the law of the strongest,” he says.

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Author: AFP – Seneweb.com

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