Illegal dumps are a source of danger and disease in Gambia's Kanifing district. Efficient trash collection could be the answer. A local initiative is working with authorities to turn things around.
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00:00Dirty streets don't stand a chance when V's crew is out.
00:05Zainu Koli organises the weekend clean-ups for the independent NGO Green Up Gambia.
00:12Here the group of committed young volunteers is in canapé.
00:17Gambia is a densely populated economic hub in Combo province.
00:23But they know there is a lot more trash to collect elsewhere.
00:28More than 500 tonnes of waste are collected daily in front of Combo.
00:32And that's only residential areas, it does not include the schools and the market.
00:36So roughly if you add both the schools and the market and all the places together,
00:39the waste generated in this municipality alone can go roughly about 700 tonnes of waste.
00:44While activist Zainu Koli raises civic awareness with clean streets,
00:51Gambia, like many other African countries, is struggling with an even bigger problem.
00:58People dumping their trash illegally in the environment.
01:02In 2018, Carnefing's municipal council finally decided to tackle the issue.
01:09I came to realise that there are a lot of illegal dumps.
01:13And then I conducted, or we conducted as a council, what we call operation Cleared Illegal Dumps.
01:20We were able to clear 65 illegal dumps, these are major illegal dumps,
01:25and put in a signboard to deter people from dumping those areas.
01:32Next, the council created a collection service for Carnefing's 19 wards.
01:39Residents pay the equivalent of 15 euro cents per sack of waste,
01:44and a bit more for a full garbage bin.
01:47Each Mbali truck, which means waste in the world of language, costs 90,000 euros.
01:54The initial fleet of trucks was bought with the help of a private Gambian consortium.
02:00The investment has paid off.
02:03The regular collection service is changing the city in many ways.
02:08Previously, our workload was centred around illegal dump clearing,
02:14but now that has significantly reduced because of the trash.
02:17So the environmental impact is already there.
02:20We have seen illegal dumps reduced,
02:23and then when we started clearing the illegal dumps and Mbali trucks started coming,
02:29we realised that the incidence of malaria has also reduced within the municipality,
02:34and then gradually the mindset of people started changing.
02:40Every day, roughly 400 tonnes of waste are dumped here at Bakote Landfill.
02:47It's the size of 25 football pitches and a toxic hazard for the residents living in surrounding communities.
02:55The council's attempts to close the dump and move to a safer,
02:59more modern facility away from the population centres have stalled.
03:07There is a solution for organic waste at least.
03:10The council is participating in a zero-waste project run by a local NGO.
03:173,000 kilos of organic waste are collected from markets every month
03:22and turned into useful compost.
03:25And there is a further benefit too.
03:28So this project, one, is trying to mitigate the effects of climate change
03:31because the methane that comes out of organic waste, we all know,
03:34is more serious than the carbon that comes out from the gas.
03:38The organic waste compost is used on these vegetable fields in the women's garden.
03:43Hundreds of men and women grow organic vegetables on these communal land in Bakau,
03:49both for themselves and to sell on.
03:53The zero-waste organisers also teach how to make compost.
03:57Eggshells are great, onion skins too, but nothing oily.
04:03Just add soil and water.
04:05High school students are also learning how to produce less waste.
04:14At Barkote, recycling is rare.
04:17So far, only plastic waste is sorted and sold on to companies who turn it into granulate.
04:24Scavengers can make a basic living, but less than from official recycling work.
04:30Changing such an informal system requires support from society as a whole.
04:35As young people of the Gambia, we also have a responsibility
04:38to put our hands together with authorities as a national place.
04:41It has to be the combination of government and people to work together to make sure the nation grows.
04:46In Gambia, motivation is still high among these young people to join the street cleanup,
04:52as is the hope that one day, soon their efforts will no longer be necessary.