The Burkinabè government recognized on Friday, before the Transitional Legislative Assembly (ALT), the absence of a national policy for the management of cemeteries in a context of galloping demography.

According to the Minister of Territorial Administration, Decentralization and Security, Boukaré Zoungrana, there is currently no national policy for the management of cemeteries.

Mr. Zoungrana also specified that reflections are underway in his department for the development of a guidance document for the creation and management of cemeteries in Burkina Faso.

The Minister in charge of Territorial Administration was this Friday at the Transitional Legislative Assembly (ALT), to answer questions relating to funeral directors and the management of cemeteries.

For the occasion, Boukaré Zoungrana dwelled on the explanatory factors of the degradation and the absence of personnel of cemeteries in municipalities with special status such as that of Ouagadougou.

According to him, the fields of funeral directors and cemeteries do not interest candidates for jobs in local authorities in view of the sanctity that surrounds death.

The minister revealed that the municipality of Ouagadougou has recruited two cemetery curators at the Baccalaureate level who are in the Gounghin and Kamboisien cemeteries and guards who have all taken the key to the fields, due to their low motivation.

He also pointed out, among other things, the non-existence of prospects, the hostility of the populations against any innovation, the insufficiency of the financial resources of the local authorities which slows down the implementation of actions in favor of the development and maintenance of sites to house cemeteries.

According to him, the future master plan of "Grand Ouaga" by 2050, being prepared with the Ministry in charge of Urban Planning and the surrounding municipalities, plans to build cemeteries and acquire the necessary equipment. for the short, medium and long term funeral chain.

"There are currently 171 cemeteries, some of which already have a metropolitan vocation such as those of Borgo (Saaba), Kossoghin, Kamboincin and route de Saponé (Ouaga)", he argued.

The Minister pointed out that the municipality of Ouagadougou, in partnership with the Minister in charge of Urban Planning and other local partners, has set up a new cemetery in Sogdin, in district 4, in 2022.

In the same year, Mr. Zoungrana reported that the walls of the cemeteries of Tabtenga and Zagtouli respectively in districts 10 and 7 and a large part of the municipal cemetery were built.

“Thus, during the year 2022, 192 radio announcements were broadcast following the discovery of the bodies of indigent people or the bodies of individuals whose parents are unknown,” said Minister Boukaré Zoungrana.

Source: Burkina Information Agency