Layout

The town centre hosts most administrative and corporate headquarters. The presidential palace and embassys can be found in an area located to the east, called Quartier des ministères. The area around the Great Market which burnt down on May 27, 2003, is currently being rebuilt. This program is called the Zaca project and should last several years.

There are no sky scrapers due to the proximity of the airport, located south east, and most edifices do not exceed three or four storeys. As a result the city has rapidly stretched further and further creating many peripherical informal districts. To avoid shanty-towns the government has established residential zones called Cité de l'An II, III and IV during the Revolution. Land pressure is very high and the business center district is to be relocated in Ouaga 2000 (15 km south) where the new presidential palace will be established.

The city is composed of several districts organized around the historical centre. Each district has an area of about 2 to 5 square kilometers and blocks are laid out in geometric chessboard fashion. A large avenue, called the Boulevard Circulaire circles the inner districts. The city is further divided in about 30 sectors and encompasses 17 villages.

Streets

Street names are typically something like "rue 28.229", which means street 229 of sector 28. Only few of them, the large ones - like Boulevard De Gaulle - and those located near the centre have "real names". When people talk about somewhere in town, they refer to the closest administrative building for the sake of simplicity. Only the main streets and those of the centre are tarred, the others are often chaotic because the rain flow creates large holes in the ground.

The number of motorcycles and bicycles in the streets is impressive. Its low functioning costs - the taxes on gas are low - and the high cost of cars and four wheel drives make moving on two wheels the means of transport of choice for the citizens. When the traffic light turns green, the streets look like the departure of a grand prix moto and the air is rapidly filled with exhaust fumes. The heavy traffic has two major drawbacks : firstly the air quality is abysmal and secondly circulating is very dangerous. Very few people wear helmets so accidents are generally serious when a car and a motorcycle are involved. To tackle this issue, some streets have been arranged : there is a separate lane for the two wheels with their own traffic lights. The unpopularity of helmets discourages politics to take measures to enforce their usage.

The main streets are bordered with various shops (selling goods as diverse as clothes, furniture, refrigerators...), banks, barbers, restaurants, etc. When the night falls, women set up small stands near the road crossings where they sell food such as roasted corn, boiled peanuts, meat on sticks, fruits and vegetables. All day long, people - often kids or teenagers - sell paper tissues and mobile phone cards at each crossroad.

Télécentre

Very few homes are equipped with telephones and there are no public phone booths so people have to resort to one of the many Télécentres. There are many, many of them : on some streets one can be found every 50 meters. Some of them offer Internet access, others offer keyboarding, binding and copy services, etc. An increasing number of people own mobile phones. There are three major companies : Celtel, Tétécel and Onatel, all three in severe competition.

Taxis

Another famous means of transport used by the citizens is the taxi cab. After motorcycles and bicycles taxis represent the next most important cause of traffic in the city. Taxis are apple green and charge between 200 FCFA and 600 FCFA (0.3 to 1 EUR) for a typical journey. Prices are discussed in advance. Most vehicles are in a catastrophic state : some taxi drivers have to fix things under the hood at every traffic light, many of those I've used had burnt or had malfunctioning headlights. Very often I've wondered whether I'd die of carbon monoxide poisoning given the amount of exhaust fumes that enters the cockpit each time the taxi comes to a halt.

A taxi driver has to pay for registration (about 5000 FCFA / 10 EUR per year), for insurance, for gas and for repairs. The taxi must pass a technical revision every three years. All in all it costs about 250 000 FCFA (400 EUR) per year. Taxi drivers can subscribe to a company that helps them spread their expenses throughout the year. Nevertheless they need about 100 000 FCFA (150 EUR) to start their business, which represents an important expense. Last year a bus company has re-opened after bankruptcy ten years ago, offering very interesting fees which are very likely to harm the taxi market.

Environment

The priority of the Burkinabè government is fostering development and fighting against poverty, which is far from being nature preservation. As a result there are very few measures taken to avoid pollution and the population isn't at all aware of environmental issues.

The intense traffic of old broken taxis and motorcycles is responsible for most of the air pollution in the city. Besides it is very hard to find binss in the city : people throw garbage directly in the streets which is not a great concern for organic waste since they rapidly get degraded by the sun or eaten by animals, but is a big problem for plastic based objects such as bags.

People wait for the rain to drain garbage away, which eventually concentrates somewhere in the city. When the stack gets too big, it is set on fire and the smoke produced adds up to that produced by the vehicles which renders the air quality of Ouagadougou alarming.

Source : information gathered during a trip to Burkina Faso from many locals from various social backgrounds.