In a press release issued on Saturday, October 14, 2023, the Minister in charge of the environment Prosper Dodiko announced the lifting of the measure of temporary suspension of cleaning work in rivers crossing the city of Bujumbura for sites in need of cleaning and for cooperatives proposed by the municipalities and formed by the mixed commission.

It is a permanent joint commission, composed of officials from various ministries, which is responsible for studying the sites to be cleaned, establishing technical cleaning standards and selecting the cooperatives authorized to clean.

In its work, the Commission has shown that some sites have states of vulnerability due to previous poorly conducted cleaning activities and that others may be subject to cleaning in order to unload and normalize rice from the rivers.

For these sites showing signs of vulnerability, the minister decided that the cleaning activities must stop.
These include sites where banks are unstable and under threat of slipping, sites where river beds are too deep, sites where houses collapse, sites where people or structures must be protected.

The Minister indicates that only sites reopened to cooperatives will be subject to renewal of cleaning contracts with the OBUHA. Cooperatives with valid environmental compliance certificates will resume activities in accordance with the law.

The Minister in charge of the environment calls for collaboration between the administration, the OBUHA and the security forces, in the implementation of this measure in order to achieve the government's objectives in the environmental protection of goods and human lives.