Garbage Wars Raise A
Stink In Managua
MANAGUA (AFP) — Managua
is sinking under a pile
of garbage, amid a
dispute between hundreds
of homeless who scour
the city's dump looking
for items to sell and
the workers seeking to
supplement their wages.
For over a week the
city's poor -- who
recycle bits of copper,
bronze, aluminium, iron
or even plastic and
glass as they eke out a
living in Nicaragua's
capital city -- have
blocked access to
municipal garbage
trucks.
So a pile of rubbish is
growing up around the
city as residents
discard their trash in
the streets and alleys,
leaving it for the poor
to pick over.
"Please, please don't
take my photo. I'm too
ashamed to let anyone
see me, said one woman,
who gave her name as
Guadaloupe.
"I've been doing this
for three years. There
is no other way to work.
We are very poor and I
have had to take my
daughter out of school
to help me," she said.
Guadeloupe is one of
five people hired by a
man for a daily wage of
three dollars and 50
cents to forage through
the dump for him. He
then collects the scrap
and sells it on.
As dawn rises, the
dispossessed arrive on
foot, on rickety
bicycles or even in
carts drawn by bony
horses hoping to unearth
an iron bar or a bit of
copper pipe, for which
they can earn between 30
cents to a dollar a
kilo, from beneath the
stinking piles.
Xiomara, a young girl of
13, says she rifles
through the rubbish for
12 hours a day. "I'm
saving up for my
birthday, so I can have
a little party," she
said.
The municipal dump is
under police guard and
has been deserted since
the start of the
blockade. Columns of
steam rise up from the
45-hectare site under
the baking sun, along
with a putrid smell.
Overhead, vultures
circle in the sky.
For Managua's 1,600
garbage scavengers,
known as "churequeros,"
the city's dump is their
only source of income.
"Garbage to recycle.
It's all ours," read one
sign draped over the
dump's entrance wall.
Mauricio, a farmer who
arrived in Managua more
than 20 years ago, has
fought hard for his
coveted place in the
trash mountains where he
works alongside his son.
He collects all types of
waste plastic to deliver
to a charity, which in
turn sells it to
processing companies for
making kitchen utensils.
"I had no job and no
means to survive that. I
watched what the other
people were doing, and
it looked like a winner
and so I stayed here,"
recalled the man, who
arrived in the city
during Nicaragua's
unrest in the 1980s.
The protestors have
slammed the municipal
garbage men for trying
to keep the best finds
to themselves and for
barring them from the
site.
"They have salaries, and
bonuses, health
insurance and other
benefits which we don't
have" said Maritza
Salgado, one of the
protest leaders.
She said the city's
employees have hired
people to forage through
the rubbish for them and
find anything
salvageable to be sold
to help boost their pay
packets.
Managua's Mayor Dionisio
Marenco said he can't
find a way out of the
crisis, and President
Daniel Ortega has warned
that he will intervene
if no solution is found
soon.
Meanwhile, the garbage
is accumulating on the
streets of Managua,
triggering fears it
could soon pose a health
hazard.
The garbage blockade
this week extended to
municipal dumps in
Nindiri and Tipitapa,
two nearby towns where
some of Managua's
mounting garbage is
being diverted. |
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