Kenya's Dandora Dump Site: Dust of Hope or Mountain of Death?

By Eric Sande

Standing metres away from the close proximity of the Dandora dumpsite, a hazy steam, cloudy smoke and heavy pungent smells welcome you to the vicinity. The expansive dumpsite, currently ranked as the largest waste disposal pit in the East African region, is located 8km from Nairobi’s Central Business District. It is adjacent to Korogocho slums, in the city’s East lands. The stench from the site wafts over a multifarious clutter of makeshifts within the slum.

The documentary, titled ‘dust of hope’ and directed by Maxwell Odhiambo, which won an award at the Premere Adebola last year, describes the hassles and bustle that goes on at the site.

It clearly brings to reality the challenges of unemployment and the hardship people face as they continue to live on less than a dollar a day in the city of Nairobi. 

The heroine of the documentary is ‘Mama Moses’ (Rose Wanjiru). She narrates her story as having lived in the city for over 20 years without employment. In order to bring food to the table she found herself at the dump site.

John Gitau, one of the grand sons of Mama Moses gives an insight into the daily running at the dump and the kind of chores they perform on a day-to-day basis.

At some distance, there is a heavy downpour and one can see pigs hanging around. The pig farm is part of Mama Moses’ efforts to encourage the boys to rear pigs as a supplementary business to recycling waste at the dumpsite.

Amos Gitau gives an account of how the money they get from the pigs promotes their living standards. He talks of having secured an apartment from the business. For viewers who want to follow this documentary effectively, a brief background of the dumpsite will be of great help.

The dump site stands on a 32- acre piece of land overlooking the informal settlements of Dandora, Kariobangi North, Korogocho and Baba Ndogo, home to about a million of predominantly low income informal sector workers.

With no clear set standards on what kind of waste materials should go to the dump site, agricultural, domestic and medical wastes - including used syringes are scattered all over the site. Heavy metals such as lead and mercury and organic pollutants such as DDT and PCBs get into the air and soil the area. Plastics, rubber, lead paint treated wood, hazardous waste containing poisonous chemicals, to mention but a few are all found on the dumpsite.

The Nairobi River passes by the dumpsite and some of the waste makes its way into the river, which carries these environmental and health risks to the riparian communities who may be using the water for irrigation of food products and in their homes.

According to World Health Organization (WHO), a quarter of all diseases affecting the humankind are attributable to environmental risks, with children more vulnerable than adults. Among children under five, environmentally-related illnesses are responsible for more than 4.7 million deaths annually. Twenty-five percent of deaths in developing countries are related to environmental factors, compared with 17 percent of deaths in the developed world.

Due to hard economic times which has spawned a culture of survival, people have formed cartels to sort out waste dumped by tens of lorries and recycled them. They take home between KES 50-150 (US$ 0.75-2.3) a day. Their working conditions are deplorable, as they don’t use any protective gear. Worse still, employers do not offer them any medical cover. Getting sick here is as common as a hobby and this is manifested in the high death rate of those working at the dumpsite.

A United Nations Environment 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, Kenya’ further  reveals that agricultural wastes such as fungicides and herbicides and hospital waste including packaging materials, containers, used syringes and other sharp, biological waste and pharmaceuticals are all dumped at the site.

In 1998, the Japanese International Co-operation Agency (JICA) observed that the site poses a serious air pollution problem, which affects the health of human beings and scavenger animals. This is also evident in the huge amounts of smoke emanating from the dumpsite risking the lives of those working and living around. This particularly affects pupils from the neighbouring schools. A long delay in waste collection generates a foul smelling liquid called leachate, which is considered a high water pollutant.

Gun totting criminals find a safe haven from this site using it as a hiding place and crime strategising point. Murder victims are rumoured to have been buried at the site while lawlessness is revealed by the heavy presence of the dangerous cult group ‘Mungiki’. Pathways connecting the different informal settlements  such as Dandora, Lucky Summer and Korogocho pass through the dumpsite and these paths are no go zones in the evening and even during the day, with criminals robbing passers-by and disappearing into the dumpsite.

A campaign dubbed “Stop dumping death on us”-- a wide coalition comprising the local affected communities, private sector, professional associations, faith based organizations, civil society organizations and UN agencies--disclosed to the media its memorandum on waste management system in Nairobi and the decommissioning of Dandora dumping site. The memorandum sets a clear demand for the President and the Prime Minister to provide leadership in this process and appeals to them to set up a framework to coordinate waste management in Nairobi and the relocation of Dandora dumping site. The campaigners have asked the President and the Prime Minister to intervene to avoid uncoordinated efforts which may lead to duplication of efforts and possible institutional conflicts among different government actors.