As a city of 3 million people, Mogadishu is currently one of the fastest growing cities in the world and according to Demographia, its the fastest growing city on the African continent.
The return of hundreds of thousands of Somali expats, a steady reconstruction boom and the prospect of job opportunities in the city all have contributed to drawing in people from the countryside and from around the world.
These factors significantly increased the need for an efficient waste management system for the city.
The Environmental Cleaning Company also known by the abbreviation ‘ECCO’ stepped up to the challenge and transformed Somalia’s capacity to collect, transport and dispose of waste, while keeping the streets of Mogadishu neat and clean.
Founded in 2016 by a group of Somali entrepreneurs, ECCO has since brought a modern solution to a major problem in the Somali capital by deploying a new fleet of garbage trucks, recycle containers and sanitation vehicles that maintain a culture of cleanliness.
Mogadishu, before the civil strife, was for decades known as the cleanest city in Africa, a prestigious title which it has since lost to the Rwandan capital of Kigali.
In 2018, due to the success of ECCO and its positive impact on the beautification of Mogadishu, the company found a supporter and champion in the city’s late Mayor Abdirahman Omar Osman, who partnered with ECCO on a city wide sanitation program with the goal to regain Mogadishu’s historic status as one of the cleanest cities in the world.
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