(Ecofin Agency) - In its November 2020 report, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) draws a direct correlation between the high rate of road deaths in countries and the weak regulation of used vehicles. Last year, road accidents officially killed 1,060 people in Burkina Faso.

Burkina Faso wants to clean up its road transport sector. The Minister of Transport, Urban Mobility and Road Safety Vincent Dabilgou said, on Monday, he plans to strengthen the normative texts concerning the age of imported vehicles. This was during the 9th edition of the low carbon emission days, under the theme "Sustainable Transportation: Air Pollutant Reduction Factors."

According to the National Institute of Statistics and Demography (INSD), around 278,000 individual motorcycles and more than 21,000 new personal cars are registered each year (2017 data), more than 90% of which are second-hand vehicles. INSD says used cars are often not subject to any special technical inspection before being shipped.

Capping the age of those vehicles will help improve traffic flow, reduce the number of vehicles that often break down on the public highway, lessen accidents caused by mechanical failures, decrease vehicle operating costs, and mitigate road deterioration, among other things.

To significantly lower the impact on the environment, Burkina Faso also wants to promote the use of public transport instead of motorcycles (2.3 million in 2017), which represent 86% of motorized vehicles in circulation in the country. This idea is backed by the ongoing Greater Ouaga Urban Mobility Project (PMUGO).

Romuald Ngueyap