2023-11-24 10:52:00
Charleroi, its stadium, its slag heaps… and its trash cans? For years, residents of the Pays Noir have complained regarding the cleanliness of the city. Illegal waste dumping, trash cans taken out too early, bulky items abandoned on the sidewalks… Faced with these incivilities and behaviors contributing to the lack of cleanliness, the city of Charleroi has decided to act by increasing prevention (communications to the population, guardians of the peace, etc.) and repression. Six reporting agents were hired to track down incivility, a reminder of the desire of the political authorities to tackle the problem.
Their work begins in the offices of the cleanliness division of the Carolo municipal administration. It is here that the team handles complaints from local residents, who can contact the reporting agents to denounce the incivility they witness. “We can have five phone calls a day, but it can go up to 10 or 15,” reports Aurélien Babuin, one of the service agents. What is certain is that it never remains inactive.” It is partly on the basis of these grievances that his days are organized. The city center of Charleroi has also been divided into nine zones. Every week, one of them is covered on foot by the teams, accompanied by the Tibi intercommunal company – responsible for waste collection – and the police.
The Tibi intercommunal company collected less waste per capita in 2022
In their white van, the two agents survey the fifteen municipalities of Charleroi, with particular attention paid to municipalities with more problems than others. “Unfortunately, we know that Marchienne, Dampremy and Gilly are relatively dirty areas,” remarks Michaël Gonel, Aurélien’s partner. In the center, Boulevard Jacques Bertrand is another black spot known to the pair, who pass there almost every week. That day, several black bags were left next to a public trash can: a common case for which offenders, if they can be identified, will receive a fine. In the event of early filing, on the other hand, only an administrative report (CRA) is issued. A few months ago, all residents of Charleroi received a letter reminding the general police regulations and good practices for removing waste.
Officers detecting environmental offenses in Charleroi ©Bernard Demoulin
Search to better sanction
Before starting the searches, the investigating officers take a photo of the offense using a mobile application displaying the precise location and the date. Like most cases, household waste was left there. “What impresses me is the food! It’s really in everyone’s bag,” Aurélien is surprised. Then it’s time for the search: all the bags are opened by the two agents who review the contents of the bins to find documents mentioning a name or an address, receipts with a customer number or any other clue allowing us to go back to the identity of the offenders. Here, a document allows the two agents to confirm the identity of the person who committed the offense. A name that Aurélien knows well: he has already handled two cases concerning her. “It’s not often, but it happens. We had around ten recurrences over the year,” estimates the agent.
As they continue their tour, the two officers explain that they cannot stop for every violation they see. It is above all on the list of grievances and the black points that they concentrate. With six for more than 200,000 inhabitants, it’s impossible to do everything. “Look, here the person even cut out his name from the medicine box,” laughs Michaël, in front of another clandestine depot. “Sometimes there is no clue or the people identified are not domiciled in Belgium,” he adds. “That’s a bit frustrating… But the problem is that we don’t know how to do anything,” confirms Aurélien. It is therefore difficult to find and punish all the culprits. According to data collected by Cédric Nemeghaire, coordinator of the incivility peacekeeper cell, 150 searches took place each month – between January and October 2023 – in the city center. “Out of these 150 excavations, we do around 50 excavations with clues,” he adds. But the work doesn’t stop there…
The application used by Charleroi assessors allows them to directly display information on the photo, including the location as well as the date and time. ©Bernard Demoulin
Time-consuming work
Once the clues have been collected on the ground, the investigating officers return to their offices for the second part of their work: analyze and compare the data with the information in the national register, prepare the reports and the CRA, send the copies to the King’s prosecutor and to the sanctioning official. Time-consuming work since each file requires two to three hours of work from agents, barring complications.
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“What we want is also to send the image to the population that there is collaboration with our agents, the Tibi intermunicipal association for everything related to education, and the police too. It’s showing residents who respect the rules that public services are doing something to fight once morest this phenomenon and it’s also showing offenders that they have to be careful,” explains the unit coordinator. A job “to do and redo”, which the agents intend to continue in the coming months. “In Charleroi, we were very permissive. Here, it’s a bit of a 180°C turn and we say to ourselves that it’s over. Incivility, environmental crime, waste… Everyone complains. Know that now we are taking care of it,” he concludes.
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