|
Weighted with two heavy sacks of discarded milk bags and meat bonesslung across her back, a plastic bag of rotted cabbage in her hand,Rahab Ruguru walks through a smoky landscape of mountainous pilesof burning waste, scavenging for a living. "Working here is how I am able to feed my children,"says the 42-year-old mother of six, stooping to pocket a handful ofdiscarded candy from the ground. "Of course it is not a usualjob. Dodging pigs [and] used condoms, eating what I find. No,it"s not good for me. But it is a job and I have topersevere." Ms. Ruguru is one of an estimated 6,000 people who come daily tomine the Dandora city dump, a sprawling 12-hectare wasteland about15 kilometres from Nairobi"s thriving central businessdistrict. They sort and place into large sacks waste that caneither be eaten or sold to recycling companies – mostlymetals, rubber, glass, milk bags, plastics, meat bones andelectronics. Nobody earns more than $2.50 (U.S.) a day. Nearly one million people live in the slums that surround the dump,the only one serving the Kenyan capita. While the Dandora garbagedump provides a source of income for some – Ms. Ruguru, forinstance, says her scavenged items bring her money for herchildren"s food, school fees, books and uniforms – itis at the centre of a political controversy. The trash pickers and their supporters do not want their onlysource of income to end. But most of the people living near Dandorawant the trash site gone and have organized themselves into agrassroots campaign called Stop Dumping Death On Us. "This isn"t just about trash," says AggreyOtieno, a human rights activist who grew up next to Dandora."It"s about how our capital city is treating its mostdisadvantaged citizens." Father John Webootsa, another campaign activist, says the dumpcontaminates the lives of its neighbours. "The air we breathehere is acidic air, children are born with birth defects, theaverage lifespan is less than 50 years old, ... the vegetablespeople take from here grow from polluted soil, the water we used todrink from the Nairobi River has turned tar black," he says."The facts are on the table. That dumpsite should not bethere." A 2007 study by the United Nations Environment Programme found soilsamples containing fatally high levels of lead in a communitybordering the dump. It also found that 154 of the 328 childrentested suffered from respiratory problems attributed to the siteand had concentrations of lead in their blood that exceededinternationally accepted levels. Dandora has been in operation since about 1975. Nairobi"scity council declared it full in 2001, but an estimated 2,000metric tonnes of waste continues to be dumped there daily. Local officials blame the city"s rapid population growth– Nairobi has grown from about 830,000 in 1979 to 3.4 milliontoday – and an overwhelmed bureaucracy for keeping Dandoraopen. "Population growth has superseded ourfacilities," says Mutabari Inanga, an environmental andpublic health officer who sits on Nairobi"s city council.Dandora, he adds, "has become an environmental and healthcrisis for which we have had no one to take responsibility." Mr. Inanga says the city is prepared to privatize waste managementand relocate the site, but is waiting for the go-ahead from theJomo Kenyatta International Airport. The proposed new dump would beplaced next to the airport, but officials have expressed fear thesite will attract birds that will interfere with air traffic. On most days, children skip school in anticipation of the truckcoming from the airport, which they consider a particularly goodsource of treats. As it waits to enter Dandora, the older onesclamber up its sides to examine the unfinished salads, sandwiches,bread, yogurt cups and refuse from incoming flights. Youngerchildren sort through waste tossed on the ground. Once inside the site, dozens of men fight over the haul. Baked bythe heat of the Kenyan sun and reeking of spoiled milk, thecongealed food waste is either eaten on the spot or placed in KenyaAirways bags to be consumed later. An occasional fight breaks outbetween pickers over the most coveted items – a half-eatenbrownie, an unopened container of yogurt. Avoiding the frenzy, women pick through items the children and menhave ignored. Ms. Ruguru and many others who come daily to rummage and pickthrough the garbage for something saleable or edible fear the dayDandora is decommissioned. They have come to depend on it for theirlivelihood and income. "If this site moves then I will movewith it," says Ms. Ruguru. Special to the Globe and Mail, and reported with a grant from thePulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. I am an expert from cavitationrfslimmingmachine.com, while we provides the quality product, such as China Pressotherapy Slimming Machine , Elight Machine, Skin Rejuvenation System,and more.
Related Articles -
China Pressotherapy Slimming Machine, Elight Machine,
|
