The West African coastal zone is highly exposed to land-based pollution, mainly linked to domestic, industrial, agricultural discharges, as well as oil and gas activities. To address this challenge, ORLOA has developed, as part of the third update of the West Africa Coastal Assessment Report, a geospatial database of potential sources of coastal pollution (BDGIPC_ORLOA_v1). Its purpose is to centralize and locate threats to marine and coastal ecosystems, as well as coastal communities, in order to support the sustainable management of the coastline.

The methodology combined the identification, collection, harmonization, and validation of data in the concerned countries, resulting in an inventory of 607 pollution sources.

These are dominated by agro-food industries (24%), followed by domestic and industrial effluents (17%), and port infrastructures (17%). Their distribution is uneven, with high concentrations in urban centers (up to 90% of infrastructures in Mauritania and Guinea-Bissau, 70% in Senegal and Ghana). The database also records nearly 4,916 km of hydrocarbon transport pipelines, mainly located in the Gulf of Guinea.

Each infrastructure is described by key attributes (category, status, location, type of pollution, distance from the shoreline, data source, etc.). In addition, six case studies concretely illustrate the impact of coastal pollution in the region (Hann Bay and Soumbédioune in Senegal, Korle Lagoon in Ghana, Port of Cotonou in Benin, Lomé Beach and the Kpémé industrial area in Togo).

The BDGIPC_ORLOA_v1 serves as a reference tool to visualize, analyze, and disseminate information on coastal pollution in West Africa. However, it remains an evolving tool and will need to be regularly updated, particularly through the national observatories currently being established under the WACA ResIP project. Below is an interactive map to access, view, and download the database on pollution sources.