By: Nyima Sillah
Scavengers among other people earning their living from the Bakoteh dumpsite have raised their concerns about closure of the site.
They described it as a big blow on them hence it is the only place they have been working and earn their living for many years.
Mariama Nyassi who spoke to The Voice said: “I earn my income in search of metals and plastics which I do sell to earn my living and feed family too.” Sometimes, she explained that she do go to the site with her three kids who had dropped out of school for inability to pay their school fees to pick things from the dumping site
Regarding to the sales, she said they do sell a kilo of metal for D5 while a bag of a plastic bottles is between D3 and D5depending on the size of the bottles despite this prices “it is very hard to get even D50 per day. With this meager amount, some customers still buy in credit from us and even not pay on time.”
She added that it is still difficult to get or find enough of the plastic bottles and mental but scavengers always spending times from morning to late night waiting for trashes or people to dump them.
It is a terrible moment for Awa Bah whose livelihood also depend on the dumpsite saying her husband is currently sick and she does not have money to go into buying and selling business, a major reason that she chosen to become a scavenger earning her livelihood from dumping items to feed and support the husband and kids.
“I have a 3months baby but sometimes I bring her to the site even though the pollution is not good for her health but I am choiceless and this is the only clean business I can do to feed my family,” she said.
Ebrima Sarr, said he has been scavenging at the site for 10 years and “I use the money to feed my family and pay my children’s school fees.”
“Sometimes I do face some health complications, but as head of the family I cannot sit down doing nothing because I don’t want my kids to involve in any illegal business or turn out to be dropout,” he said.
