Allure of Dandora’s mega bucks garbage collection business

Dandora dumpsite

By KIBIWOTT KOROSS

Birds, pigs and locals rummage into a pile of garbage being dropped by a lorry at the Dandora dumpsite. Over 2,000 metric tonnes of waste are deposited daily at the 32 acre piece of land, and what initially was to be the refilling of an old quarry has given rise to an enormous mountain of garbage. “It is always so,” says Stephen Ngendo the truck driver; “we can’t stop them.”

The dumpsite is believed to be a multi-million shilling industry and local politicians and senior businessmen are believed to be highly involved in maintaining the status quo while taking different positions over the relocation of the dumpsite, depending on which position is convenient to them at a particular time in point.

Controlled by cartels

The industry is also controlled by cartels, some of who employ street boys to block operators from disposing garbage at the dumpsite. Mr Ngendo says criminal gangs have taken control of the site and they have to part with Sh300 per trip. He said: “If you don’t part with the money, they won’t allow you to dump. They are so violent and during my first days, I used to fear them but nowadays we are friends.”

The gangs are feared to be from the dreaded Mungiki squad but one gang member who identified himself as Joseph Junior says they are former street children who grew up there. “Hii ni base yetu. Hapa ni home na yeyote anayetaka kufanya biashara lazima atuchunge. (This is our base. It is our home and whoever wants to do business here must consult us,)” he said. Several gangs have been fighting for control of the Dandora dumpsite.

Last week, five guns were surrendered to police in a deal brokered by Senator Mike Sonko between two rival gangs. The gunmen said they had been using the weapons to protect “their sections” of the site.

The move comes days after a gang member was killed and several others injured in a clash between two rival gangs. Dandora dumpsite is home to all kinds of wastes. The United Nations Environmental Programme (Unep) report released in October 2007 found out that industrial wastes such as fall-offs, used chemicals, raw materials, expired products and substandard goods are offloaded at the dumpsite.

The report titled - Environmental Pollution and Impacts on Public Health, the impact of the Dandora Dumping Site in Nairobi, reveals that agricultural waste such as fungicides and herbicides and hospital litter including packaging materials, and containers, used syringes and other sharp, biological waste and pharmaceuticals are all dumped at the site. “Dumping at the site is unrestricted. Industrial, agricultural, domestic and medical wastes - including used syringes - are strewn all over the site,” said the 2007 Unep report.

Plastics, rubber and lead paint treated wood, hazardous waste containing poisonous chemicals is found on the dumpsite. In 2001, the defunct Nairobi City Council (NCC) announced the site was full and the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources had proposed moving the dumpsite to Kayole’s abandoned quarries as a stop-gap measure before settling on Ruai in 2009.

The government and City Hall then said the environmental and health risks created by the dumpsite as the reason for its relocation, but it is yet to be effected. A deal in 2004 to award a Sh3.5 billion garbage collection business to an Italian firm, Jacorossi Impresse, went sour after it elicited opposition from Cabinet ministers and councilors. In Kenya, waste management and recycling is said to be a lucrative industry that mints millions daily for those who have established a strong presence in the business over the decades.

In the past, garbage collection was firmly in the hands of the NCC, which collected 90 per cent of the waste generated in the city. Residents of the city paid waste collection levy, which was factored in water bills and a metal bin was provided to collect household waste and then emptied at least once a week. However, several amendments into the city by-laws between the mid-80s and early 90s saw this charge dropped and the NCC had to provide these services funded by dues from other sources.

But not all who apply for license get one like Ngendo’s employer. “My boss does not have any license but he knows how to manoeuvre,” said Ngendo who drives an old Bedford lorry whose number plate is smeared with dirt. Most of those who get licensed are well-connected individuals with ramshackle trucks that are dilapidated and un-roadworthy, spewing garbage as they go, with some dumping in un-designated sites in secluded parts of the city. Others lack basic traffic requirements like the traffic police sticker or even insurance.

 

Employ urchins

Such owners employ street urchins on daily basis to go and load waste on their vehicles in estates. Being under the influence of glue and other drugs, the street boys will manhandle anyone questioning them. The businessmen are also accused of colluding with council authorities to stifle the efforts of new operators, who would want to register waste management companies.

But in an earlier interview, the NCC denied existence of cartels that control the waste management business in the city. According to Isaac Muraya, Nairobi City County’s deputy director of environment, the process of tendering is open and fair to all and no such cartels exist.

“There has to be minimum requirements before you get a permit because we need to make sure that if you are bidding for a tender to manage waste, you actually have the capacity to perform that service effectively,” he explained.

Privatising garbage collection is part of the council’s new strategy to clean up the city and create a new stream of revenue from households that generate the waste.

The council in March 2010 created 10 zones including Lang’ata, Embakasi, Kasarani, Westlands, Starehe, Makadara, Kamukunji, Dagoretti and Muthurwa, where the private garbage collection companies will be assigned to collect, transport and dispose solid waste. Past studies that involve an analysis of soil samples from locations adjacent to and within the dumpsite show high levels of heavy metals emanating from the site, in particular lead, mercury, cadmium, copper and chromium.

A medical analysis of the children and adolescents living and schooling in its neigbourhoods revealed a high risk of diseases associated with high exposure to these metal pollutants.

For example, about 50 per cent of children examined who live and school near the dumpsite had respiratory ailments and blood lead levels equal to or exceeding internationally accepted toxic levels (10ug/dl of blood), while 30 per cent had size and staining abnormalities of their red blood cells, confirming high exposure to heavy metal poisoning.