The 9th World Water Forum will be organized from March 22 to 29, 2022 in the new Urban Pole of Diamniadio. This first congress marks an important stage in the emergence of “the largest new city south of the Sahara”. This proves that work is progressing, that the Abdou Diouf conference center and the exhibition center are operational. However, planned to accommodate 350 000 inhabitants by 2030-2040, the city of Diamniadio is still far from being completed.
In this new city located 35 kilometers from Dakar, conference sites, administrative districts, sports complexes, mixed housing zones, industrial zones, universities, etc. have been built since 2015.
To this day, the town of Diamniadio, located 17 kilometers from the new Blaise Diagne international airport, is still almost empty. If buildings are beginning to be inhabited and some ministerial departments have left the Senegalese capital under the presidential impulse, the rest of the thousands of civil servants should follow more or less quickly.
Next step, a United Nations building will soon bring together most of the UN agencies that will have to leave Dakar. A large university campus is also due to receive its first students in 2023. A hospital and a stadium are also being finished, the latter to host the next Youth Olympic Games – a decision of the International Olympic Committee – several times postponed due to the pandemic.
“In terms of water, sanitation, electricity, public lighting and waste management in particular, the ambition is to do better than anywhere in the country by relying on digital technology.”
Benjamin Fradelle, Tactis consulting firmto Franceinfo Africa
But the real starting signal to begin to relieve congestion Dakar, which captures a third of the Senegalese population, will be the tram that will link the capital to the new city from January 2022. This tram was symbolically inaugurated, but it is not yet operational.
Building new cities from scratch to accommodate rapidly growing urban populations and to develop the territory is a long and complex undertaking which interests a large number of African countries faced with rampant urbanization.
It is a question here of making run on 1 600 hectares, located in four municipalities, water, electricity, sanitation, waste and transport networks, telecommunications, wifi but also, since the future city wants to be smart, fiber optic networks and CCTV cameras.
Millions of sensors will be installed to quickly detect leaks and breakdowns to ensure the safety and fluidity of transport. The principle of a smart city is to provide the right data to the various players by relying on digital technology so that they can quickly take decisions.
“For example, it is a question of knowing how long it will take for the next bus to arrive, but also of knowing if we can get on it, or if it will be full. This requires information networks accessible to citizens”, says Benjamin Fradelle of Tactis firm.
But success at the end of the road is not guaranteed. The oldest new African city, Yamassoukro, emerged in the 1980s by the will of the former Ivorian president Houphouët Boigny, never had the expected success despite the massive investments made at the time. The success of a new city is a difficult alchemy.