In this paper, a review is made in order to broaden our knowledge on the management
systems of household waste in the five largest towns of Burkina Faso and propose an
environmentally sound thermal way for their treatment. Data from the General Population
and Housing Census of 2006 and the statistical handbook of the environment of year
2010 was used to estimate the five largest cities of Burkina Faso inhabitants’ waste
production, management and disposal methods. Descriptive statistics have been used to
evaluate waste production, thermal energy and improvement to organized household
waste collection rates. These cities produce continuously growing quantities of household
waste, but infrastructure to manage it is insufficient or almost inexistent. Furthermore the
majority of Burkina Faso’s citizens poorly handles or disposes of their household waste.
This results to an unhealthy urban environment. It appears that treating municipal waste
in gasifiers will give an economical value to waste and possibly improve its collection rate.
Gasification has been used several decades ago in Europe, USA end Australia and offers
the advantage of accepting a big variety of feedstock. Municipal waste in Burkina Faso
that mainly consists of carbonaceous materials appears as a good candidate for
gasification. This review suggest that gasifiers represents a good opportunity for
municipal waste treatment in Burkina Faso and downdraft gasifiers appears the most
suitable technology that could be built, operated and maintained by local technicians
without a need for very high special training.