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Benbruce
Valga-Valka City
Exactly 100 years have passed since the tiny river Varžupīte / Konnaoja divided the town of Walk into Valga (EE) and Valka (LV). Today, in December 2020, the twin town center is united again!
The motto of Valga–Valka is “One city, two statesâ€. The project aim is the development of a joint territory to improve physical connectivity, unite both towns’ citizens, promote tourism and activate entrepreneurship. The new center is architecturally and professionally designed so that the border has become an attraction. This goes beyond a simply joint territory, instead this is a concrete example of multi-level partnership built upon common local goals and values.
Despite legal differences in the two countries, the construction of the twin city centre came to an end without major incidents and was completed ahead of schedule! The great opening is expected for spring 2021. The project received an ERDF contribution of 2,9 million EUR.
Now that construction is finalised, dissemination activities include the outdoor orienteering game 'walk WALK" taking place between 12 and 27 December.
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Benbruce
Senegal's Plastic Waste Crisis In Pictures
Fisherman Samwu Ndaye is a volunteer who every morning combs the beach of Ngor, a 400-year-old village on Africa’s westernmost tip in the Senegalese capital Dakar, to clean up the waste plastic that builds up there. Single-use plastic products of every kind litter the villages along Senegal‘s coastline along with other waste that gets washed up at different spots throughout the year, depending on the prevailing winds and ocean currents.
“If we don’t clean it, no one will,†says Ndaye, who is one of a growing number of volunteers who dedicate their time to cleaning up what has rapidly become a modern scourge.
The waters around Dakar are heavily polluted with plastic and “more arrives each dayâ€. according to the fisherman. As the world’s population grows, so too does the amount of waste that is generated, leading to a vast environmental problem on a global scale which waste management is just beginning to have an impact on.
However, in low- and middle-income countries like Senegal, this process is all too often underfunded or simply neglected. One-third of Senegal’s population of 16 million people lives below the national
poverty line. The rapid growth of the west African country’s population, especially in larger cities like Dakar, has led to a hike in the production of household waste.
