Life, but not as we know it

Threatening problems result from such increasing heaps of garbage.

A 21-year-old young man stands absently waiting for the massive trucks to unload. When they do, he jumps onto huge heaps of garbage to start working. Although the hot rays of the sun beat mercilessly down upon his head, he is completely absorbed in his work. Stray dogs and ravens are also searching among the heaps of garbage. The exhaustion and seriousness in the young man’s expression makes him seem older than his age. However, he still kindly smiles when he talks to the Yemen Observer and the disgusting smells, emanating from everywhere around, do not prevent him from enjoying drinking his red drink to quench his thirst.  

Lost Rights 
S.M. is one of many people working in the Al-Azzraqain dumpsite, located in the north of the Capital-Secretariat, sorting out garbage. Many of those working there have done so for many long years; however, they are still deprived of their simple human rights such as medical insurance and risk allowance. Perhaps the worst thing is that they still receive a very low daily income. Only their poor life conditions compel them to work in such a place, where they are exposed to hazardous materials that lead many to suffer from different diseases. “I finished high school but I did not find another better job to work at. I am responsible for supporting my family, so I am compelled to stay working in this dumpsite. I have been working in this place for about seven years,” said S.M, the father of one child. 

Low Income  
The majority of Al-Azzraqain dumpsite workers spend their whole life working in these types of places for very low salaries. They start working at 8 a.m. and work through until 1 p.m., and then continue their duties from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Some others also work in the evening, on an 8 p.m. to 3 a.m. shift.  According to the director of the Al-Azzraqain dumpsite, Saleh al-Suraihi, there are two kinds of people working in the dumpsite. Some of the workers are employed with the Capital Cleaning Project, which falls under the Cleaning and Environment Sector in the Capital-Secretariat. Every one of those workers gets just YR530 per day, or YR16,000 at month.  Others are associated with the Yemen Zeenat Foundation, which is working to sort out garbage in the dumpsite. The foundation’s system is to give YR3,000 for every ton (1,000 kilograms) of sorted garbage. “Every one of us tries to sort out more to get more. But I cannot sort out one ton of garbage; I can just sort out 500 to 600 kilograms per day. So, I earn only around YR1,000 every day. It means that I get about 3 riyals for every kilogram of garbage that I sort out,” said M.A., 20, who is responsible for a large family of more than 10 people. 

Food from Garbage 
A lot of these workers think that they can save money by depending on the garbage to supply their daily food. “Many trucks, from many different authorities, come at night to unload their garbage of leftovers. People here always wait until such times to have their daily dinner. They also save some of these leftovers as meals for the next day,” said S.M, laughing when he talks. Many of those workers contract various diseases as a result of eating the leftovers. “We recently took one worker to the hospital after he was afflicted with food poisoning as a result of eating from the garbage,” he said. 

Serious Infections 

Many young people spend years working here in hazardous and unsanitary conditions.

People in the dumpsite are often exposed to dangerous viruses and other sources of infection, coming from different chemical materials and building waste. “When I asked the Capital Cleaning Project to give me a medicine allowance, they just gave me YR5,000 after [I had completed] long procedures,” said one worker who is suffering from a disease in his liver. “I spent more than YR100,000 in different hospitals to be cured from infections in my liver.”  Similar workers in other countries are provided with high salaries, medical insurance and risk allowance to ensure their rights. However, workers in the Al-Azzraqain dumpsite who fall ill are wholly responsible for paying all of their treatment expenses.  None of the Al-Azzraqain workers are safe from the dumpsite’s contaminated air, which causes them to be infected with various diseases, including allergies in their lungs, eyes and other parts of their bodies. According to the workers, some of the infected people die as a result of very serious diseases. “My father died some years ago after he had suffered for a long time from kidney failure. I think that his work in the dumpsite for many years caused his condition,” said A.J., 25, a graduate of high school who plans to enroll in university. “All of us here are responsible for big families, so we are forced to work to support them,” he said. “No one will pay attention to your health as a worker in such a place. So, I go for a medical examination every three to four months to be sure that I am okay. I am the only one in the dumpsite who thinks to do such medical examinations.”   The Garbage Problem    Yemen’s rapidly growing population, currently estimated at 22.3 million, with 670,000 new Yemenis expected by the end of 2007, has resulted in a number of economic, social and environmental problems. One of the greatest problems is related to solid waste, which is posing a serious threat to the environment in different parts of the country.  The last annual report, issued by the Capital Cleaning Project in the Capital-Secretariat, discloses that about 385,986.5 tons of solid waste was brought in from the different provinces in the Capital-Secretariat from January to December 2007. This is a recorded increase of about 25,000 tons of solid waste when compared to figures from 2006. The report also shows that much of the waste is brought to be sorted out in the Al-Azzraqain dumpsite. According to the report, the dumpsite has 4,272 male and female workers, administrative employees and drivers, in addition to 345 trucks and choppers.   

Al-Azzraqain Dumpsite  
The Al-Azraqen dumpsite is a valley containing huge heaps of garbage which extends over about four square kilometers. The dumpsite has become much closer to people’s living areas than before, since it has been recently surrounded by residential quarters on three sides. It receives about 1,800 tons of garbage, including 1,200 tons of wastes and 600 tons of soils, per day.  In spite of such increasingly huge quantities of garbage which are brought to the Al-Azzraqain dumpsite daily, it still depends on human workers to sort it out. It does not have modern machinery to deal with the growing quantities of waste. This is a very worrying thing for the rapidly growing population of Yemen.   

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