Population and pollution
The main problem is the growing population, with an overall density close to that of the Paris region, for a first comparison, and twice as high as on Reunion Island. It has yet to experience the industrial pollution and toxic waste that can be generated by large cities, even if Mamoudzou's access and traffic flow are congested at peak times. The problems are much more down-to-earth, with waste and water pollution coming first, followed by threats to wildlife. In Mayotte, only 15% of the population is connected to a collective sewerage system, and a third has no sewage system at all. Since the island became an outermost region (RUP), the Urban Wastewater Directive (DERU) now requires that sewage systems be brought into line with European law, with the completion of major infrastructure works. In 2015, Mayotte seemed to have found a solution to its sewage treatment plant shortage, thanks to the plant and gravel purification method (natural filters). By the end of 2023, at the height of the ongoing water crisis, the government was distributing up to 350,000 liters of water a day, and a project for a second desalination plant was underway.
Fauna and flora to protect
The European Water Framework Directive (WFD) of 2000 sets objectives for all French water basins. The challenge of this protection is also to safeguard an extremely diverse marine fauna, with whales, dolphins and sea turtles growing in these lagoon waters. This means regulating and monitoring nautical tourism and leisure activities. In 2019, Mayotte will welcome the arrival of the CÉTAMADA association (Madagascar), which promotes the knowledge and conservation of marine mammals in the Indian Ocean. The association has drawn up a code of conduct to protect them from tourist abuse, and advocates a kind of "whale ecotourism". In terms of flora, there are some fifteen remarkable and protected plants, including the wild Humbolt vanilla, the Comoros hibiscus and the African baobab. For a large part of the population, ecology is becoming less and less of an abstract concept, and efforts are being made to raise awareness, especially among children, from an early age.
A step towards green energy
The Electricité de Mayotte (EDM) project is in line with the actions undertaken to achieve an energy transition for the island by 2030. Note that, among the five objectives of the "5.0 trajectory" announced in 2019 by Annick Girardin, then Minister for Overseas France, the environment takes pride of place: zero waste, zero carbon, zero chemical inputs, zero exclusion and zero vulnerability. A true environmental and social charter to make these territories experimental zones and figureheads of sustainable development. Nevertheless, the island still boasts some sad records, particularly in terms of deforestation.
Blue gold in desperate need
Over and above the drought problems inherent to a territory located at this latitude, and in the global context of global warming, the island of Mayotte suffers from a water management problem linked to structural shortcomings. Water, stored in hillside reservoirs and with the support of a desalination plant, is insufficient to meet the demands of a population whose demography is exploding and whose rainfall deficit is very high. With shortages piling up, the government, with emergency measures and the massive arrival of bottled water, decided to ration water throughout the country.
