France, Oct. 25 -- The Republic of Guinea passed its law to ban single-use plastics two years ago, but only enforced it on 20 September.

However, in the face of mounting public anger, it was forced to do a U-turn and lifted the ban on 7 October, for the next six months.

"To govern is to foresee. The ban was a most reckless decision," said Emmanuel, who buys water sachets every day in the capital Conakry.

"How can you ban the population's only access to safe drinking water without having provided an alternative solution?" asked Oumou, also from Conakry. "You can't suddenly go green and make people go thirsty."

RFI also spoke to Faya Blaise, who said he would like government ministers to "come see how life goes in the poorer neighbourho...