People in Senegal are not yet confined, but the recent measures to combat the Covid-19 are causing a drop in the use of the public transportation system in Dakar.
It is 11 am at the Petersen bus station in the center of Dakar, the capital. Surprisingly, the place is almost empty. Only the stalls of a few traders and the rickshaws of itinerant merchants occupy the vast parking space framed by the silhouettes of Tata brand buses and popular transport buses known as “Ndiaga Ndiaye”. In this terminus which houses 49 percent of public transport cars in Dakar, the time has come for discussion among colleagues. Naturally, the impact of the coronavirus that has been shaking the world since December 2019 is the main subject.
The Senegalese capital, since last Saturday, has been living in slow motion with the suspension of teaching from primary to university. In this moody atmosphere, Astou Laye, a cashier in the bus at line 3 of the Tata buses, explains: “Pupils and students are our main customers. If they are not active, our revenue will inevitably fall. Normally, tickets can be sold for 100,000 CFA francs per day. But currently, we only sell for 80,000 CFA francs. Sometimes it’s even less than that.”
Astou Laye who says she does “not believe” in the presence of the coronavirus in Senegal, hopes that the precautionary measures will not be more vigorous to the point of limiting the displacement of populations to the strict minimum. Such a situation “would not allow many of my colleagues and our drivers to make ends meet,” she worries.
A short distance away, Fa Fodeba Camara checks the bus, which is to leave the station. Dressed in an orange t-shirt with khaki pants, this man in his fifties sees to it that the rotation at line 25 runs smoothly.
Here too, adjustments have been made to adapt to the new situation. “If the time interval between the departures of two buses was five to ten minutes, currently we are forced to wait even more because passengers are becoming increasingly scarce,” he explains in a hoarse voice.
Pointing to the long line of Ndiaga Ndiaye vehicles, parked alongside the Tata buses, Camara reports that they are immobilized until the evening, due to a lack of customers. It is believed that only store employees or those looking for daily “subsistence” means are currently in downtown.
This lack of activity is also felts at Dakar’s Lat Dior station, a place of convergence for the so-called ‘high-speed buses’, which are multicolored out-of-age vehicles favored by many city dwellers.
Hygiene and awareness
“Grand-Dakar, Grand-Dakar,” yells a young apprentice to attract potential customers. Just opposite, Serigne Saliou and a few comrades are seated in one of the empty vehicles.
This fervent member of the Mourides Sufi Muslim brotherhood says he was hit hard by the crisis caused by the Covid-19. But he leaves it to God “because everything He does is just fine” and hopes for better days.
At the Petersen terminus, as at Lat Dior station, no hygienic measures are taken to avoid the coronavirus. “What interests bus owners is that at nightfall they get all the daily recipes. If a driver or a cashier ventures to buy a gel with their money, they will deduct it from their pay. They do not consider their employees as human beings,” says Fa Fodeba Camara.
However, the Association for the financing of professionals in urban transport (Aftu), the organization which manages Tata buses, recently indicated that it has released ten million CFA francs for the protection of users against Covid-19.
If elsewhere, we prefer to dwell on the consequences of the measures taken by the Head of State, Macky Sall, at the terminus of the Dakar Dem Dikk buses (the public transport company), these are rather well received.
“Our buses will be less crowded. This will certainly help limit the risk of the disease spreading,” says Mouhamed Ndaw, a garage manager.
Referring to the hygiene measures in force in his company, Ndaw informs that “since this morning, gels and face masks have been made available to drivers and cashiers.”
Users have also been included in this prevention policy “since any passenger, who gets on or off our buses, receives a few drops of hand sanitizer to clean their hands,” he adds.
The transportation sector is not the only one affected by the coronavirus. In fact, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) predicts that the continent’s Gross Domestic Product will fall by half in 2020.
ARD/id/cgd/fss/APA