Population and pollution

The major 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 in Reunion. It does not yet have the industrial pollution and toxic waste that large cities can generate, as in Reunion or in Metropolitan France, even if the access and traffic of Mamoudzou is subject to traffic jams at peak hours. The problems there are much more down to earth, with waste and water pollution coming first, followed by threats to wildlife. In Mayotte, only 15% of the inhabitants are connected to a collective system, and a third have no sanitation system. Since the island became an outermost region (OR), the Urban Wastewater Directive (UWWD) now requires that sanitation be brought into compliance with European law with the completion of major infrastructure works. Since November 2015, Mayotte seems to have found a solution to overcome the plant deficit thanks to the method of purification by plants and gravel (natural filters).

An exceptional fauna and flora to protect

The European Water Framework Directive (WFD) of 2000 sets objectives for water bodies in good condition for all French basins. The challenge of this protection is also the safeguard of an extremely diverse marine fauna, with whales, dolphins and sea turtles growing in these lagoon waters. This requires the regulation and monitoring of nautical tourism and leisure activities. Note, in 2019, the arrival in Mayotte of the association CÉTAMADA (Madagascar) which works for the knowledge and conservation of marine mammals in the Indian Ocean. This association has drawn up a code of conduct to protect them from any abuse by tourists and advocates a kind of "whale ecotourism". As for the flora, there are about fifteen remarkable and protected plants such as the wild vanilla of Humblot, 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 attempts are being made to make children aware of the island's beauties from a very young age in order to better initiate them into the protection of their environment.

A step towards green energy

The year 2019 is marked by the arrival of the first electric cars on the island. A project of Electricité de Mayotte (EDM) which is part of the continuity of actions carried out for an energy transition of the island by 2030. It should be noted that, among the five objectives of the "5.0 trajectory" announced at the beginning of the year by Annick Girardin, Minister for Overseas France, the environment occupies the main 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.