More Photos from Dandora
Less than
5km (two miles) from central Nairobi lie the smouldering mountains of rubbish
thrown away by the residents and businesses of the Kenyan capital. Dandora is
one of Africa's largest dumping and scavenging grounds. Every day thousands of
slum dwellers try to eke out a living. This man took nearly three hours to fill
his last bag of the day - and he hopes to sell the contents, which are mostly
scraps of rubber, for $0.50 (£0.30).
People
rummage through the filth, sorting into large sacks the materials that cannot
be eaten - but can be sold for recycling. Metals, rubber, milk bags, plastics,
meat bones, and electronics are some of the most sought-after recyclables. The
Nairobi city council does not officially condone this informal system of
recycling, which helps to manage the dump. Dandora opened in 1975, and under
international environmental laws should have been closed after 15 years. The
council says it now has plans to open up another site.
An
informal chain of about 6,000 middlemen and women has long done the dirty work
for recycling companies. The self-employed pickers scavenge through the
sprawling 30-acre rubbish dump from dawn until dusk. They then take their sacks
to nearby weigh stations where small buyers purchase them, eventually collecting
enough to sell on to the informal truck drivers, who deliver the loads to the
recycling companies. Pickers say they are lucky to make $2.50 in a day.
Julius
Macharia, 27, who prefers to go by the nickname “Tiger”, is one of Dandora’s
gatekeepers. In exchange for security, truck drivers pay his cartel to enter
the site. Here, he directs a truck to an acceptable location - pickers shout at
him to find a spot that does not spill onto an area they have yet to sort
through. Despite being declared full by the Nairobi council in 2001, an
estimated 2,000 tonnes of waste are still dumped each day.
Tiger
worries about what will happen to those who depend on Dandora, should the
government shut down the dump or open a new one elsewhere. After 40 years, a certain
rhythm of life has developed and families have grown to depend on the income
and food they get from scavenging. "We are like these birds and pigs to
this city,” Tiger says. “They don’t recognize us as people. They don’t care
what happens to us, and if they relocate this place then we will have nothing.”
Pickers
say they never get used to the acrid smoke from the burning piles of waste
which cover Dandora. A 2007 study by the UN's environmental agency found soil
samples containing fatally high levels of lead in a community bordering the
dump. It also found that 154 of the 328 children tested suffered from
respiratory problems because of the site and had concentrations of lead in
their blood that exceeded internationally accepted levels.
At roughly
the same time every day, the unfinished salads, sandwiches, bread, and other
foodstuffs from flights to Nairobi's busy international airport are transported
to Dandora by this green truck. The scraps hardly make it out of the truck
before dozens of men fight over the haul.
The
strongest men and boys climb on every possible inch of the truck - while others
wait their turn or for friends to toss them a morsel. Women usually avoid the
frenzy, hovering in the background waiting for the crowd to thin out before
picking through what remains.
This boy
slurps down a carton of yoghurt - it is hot, liquefied and reeking after being
baked by the sun. Nevertheless, it is one of the most coveted items.
A trip to
the dump is part of the school day for nearly a quarter of the 850 students at
St John’s Informal School, which borders Dandora. For some of them, the food
waste is the only meal they will have all day - and so the school does not mete
out any punishment for absenteeism.
Rahab Ruguru, a 42-year-old mother
of six, lives on the outskirts of Dandora. Apart from a four-year-old, Mrs
Ruguru takes her whole family scavenging at weekends and after classes - to
earn money for school fees, books and uniforms. No matter what regulations the
bureaucrats in Nairobi may issue, she does not see a time they will stop
picking through Kenya's leftovers. “If this site moves, then I will move with
it - or we will not survive,” she says.
Source: BBC News/
Text by David Conrad and photos by
Micah Albert/Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting
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