ECOSOL Limited recently completed a study for SOS children’s Village. The study was conducted three hundred meters (300m) from the perimeter of the dumpsite; Bakoteh, Manjai and Dippa Kunda. 177 people were interviewed including community members, children, people working at the dumpsite and stakeholders from various institutions. The study was geared towards finding concrete evidence on child right violations cause by the dumpsite. The study was conducted from March 24 to April 24, 2020.
The results revealed several child right violation at the dumpsite, one of which was exposure to environmental hazards that has high potential of causing both physical and mental health of the children. Environmental hazards such as exposure to smokes, bad odor and leachate, contributed to greater occurrence of sicknesses on children such as malaria, asthma and skins infections. According to KMC staffs, the Bakoteh dumpsite sometimes receives untreated medical waste from hospitals. The collected waste dumped at the site might have the possibility of including waste from individuals suffering from Corona Virus. Residents of Bakoteh, Dippa kunda and Manjai highlighted the unhealthy and unbearable situation in their surroundings especially the SOS Children Community which, is just a stone’s throw away because of the dumpsite, claiming it could even cause diseases such as cancer and tuberculosis.
Another child rights violation at the dumpsite was child labour. Though some people considered labor not to be violation of children’s right, the labour act 2007 prohibits child labour, especially in hazardous environmental conditions like Bakoteh dumpsite. Shockingly most waste pickers at the dumpsite survive by salvaging waste. Some of them are children. Children are not forced to pick waste to survive, every day they wades through rubbish, broken glass and toxic waste, collecting scrap metal and to help their parents sell waste materials to earn a living. A 16yrs old girl interviewed at the Dumpsite said she and other kids working at the dumpsite missed out on school so they can contribute to their family’s income, which they thought will help them get enough money to pay for their school fees. During the process, they end up dropping out from school because the money earned from the waste collection business is not much to pay for the fees.
The results also revealed social stigma as one of the child right violation observed at the dumpsite. It was observe that people working at the dumpsite tried to hide their identity due to the public perception about waste collectors. One of the waste collector said living and working at dumpsite makes everything about them primitive, as some people tend to classified them as someone living outside normal society.
