Garbage piles up in Guinea's capital after dump closure

In the Guinean capital of Conakry, daily life for residents and sanitation workers has reached a dead end. Garbage is piling up everywhere, in the streets and along the sidewalks. The foul smell makes the air nearly unbreathable. The illegal dumping poses a threat to health, potentially fostering the outbreak of diseases like cholera. We can't live with garbage, it's hard with the smell, when we start to repair, it's terrible, really terrible. It's terrible. It can even cause diseases, it's really not good. Donner des maladies ça c'est pas bien vraiment The situation began in late August, when heavy rains triggered a trash landslide at a dump in Conakry's Doris Island neighborhood, killing 36 people. After the catastrophe, authorities decided to shut the site permanently. Garbage has been piling up across the capital since then. Right now, they don't come to collect the garbage. They used to come twice a week, but sometimes now they can go two or even three weeks without coming. So I had to look for someone to move the garbage. We were actually preparing the ground to set fire to it. The Baritode site in the suburb of Koya was meant to be the main dump for the roughly 3,000 tonnes of waste produced daily in the capital. But its remote location and heavy traffic congestion have made its full-scale use nearly impossible. When you don't have the means, you can't get into waste management. Our difficulties are, first, getting a landfill in Guinea because we work in the collection and transport of waste. On Monday, Guinean authorities began rehabilitation work at the Dar es Salaam landfill. The site will be transformed into a park. To replace it, a new waste disposal facility is under construction at Baritode. In the meantime, residents of Conakry and its suburbs will continue to endure the garbage crisis and the health risks that come with it.