|
The Repi waste disposal site, located along the Ayer
Tena-Kality section of the Addis Ababa Ring Road, is
where the 29-year old Yohannes Matewos makes a
living. Born and raised in Shashemene, Yohannes came
to Addis in 2004 with dreams of becoming a garments
vendor. He sold an ox that he had got from his
father for 1,500 Birr and planned to use the money
as an initial capital for his dream business, in his
dream city, to live a dream urban life. His vision
is an ambition shared by most people who migrate
from the rural parts of Ethiopia only to end up on
the streets of Addis. The actual reality turned out
to be a moving cloud that Yohannes could not hold on
to.
He told Fortune that he now dreams of going
back to his birth place, to his family, and start
farming with them, after spending four years
surviving on the piled up waste at Repi.
On lucky days, Yohannes scavenges the piles of waste
to get something to fill his belly. When life is
good to him, he is able to collect disposed metals,
irons and other junk to sell at two Birr a kilo in a
place called Minalesh-Tera, which literally means
“what do you have to sell?” Located at the heart of
the largest open market in Africa, Merkato
Minalesh-Tera is a place where every kind of flotsam
and jetsam can get buyers for their ‘goods’, who, in
turn, sell these to either poor people who would use
them or, if the junk is made of plastic or iron, to
some factories that would recycle them.
Yohannes claims to make from 26 to 35 Br a day from
his junk “business”, of which five Birr goes to
covering his expenses for spending a night at a
place where he can just lay down along other people
like him. The rest is spent on daily meals.
A study by the Addis Ababa City Administration
Clean, Beautification and Parks Agency shows that
nearly 600 individuals, including Yohannes, depend
on this mountain of waste at Repi, which has a
height comparable to a two-storey building, to make
a living.
But the presence of such an abundance of waste,
covering 20hct of land in a place not very far from
many parts of the city, has kept many people awake
at night for a long time, including the City
Administrators. This place has been the destinations
for waste brought from almost every corner of the
city for about four decades now and the amassing of
waste is going on even along the low-speed lanes of
the Ring Road section just next to the junk site.
The waste disposal site is now surrounded by houses
and therefore poses a health hazard to the
inhabitants The waste may even pollute underground
water.
Yohannes says that he fell ill frequently, but “as I
cannot afford to lie down and get some medical
attention, I have to do whatever it takes to make it
here in someway,” he adds, pointing to his
“business” site.
Despite the apparent realization that the piling up
of the waste could cause health problems and
environmental pollution, the City Administration
seems to be failing to take preventative measures so
far.
General Manager of the city’s Clean, Beautification
and Parks Agency, Mussa Hassan, told Fortune
that, “the site has reached a level where it can no
longer be used to dispose waste. Accordingly, as we
are forced to look for alternative sites, we are now
focusing on a certain place.”
The site the Agency is eying is located some 20Km
away from the heart of Addis, on the Bole wing of
the city, in a place called Bole Aramsa, in the
periphery of Yerer area. The Agency plans to
construct a modern landfill, on 30ht of plot at this
site.
The modern landfill, whose feasibility study was
undertaken by Metaferiya Consulting and Engineering
Plc, is also meant to generate energy from the
biomass that will be sold to the Ethiopian Electric
Power Corporation (EEPCo) which will then connect
the energy line from the landfill to the national
grid.
The City Administration has already got positive
replies from the French government, to whom it had
submitted a funding request to secure the finances
required to embark on a detailed study of the site.
Accordingly, the French government, through its
development agency, has pledged 5.4 million Euros
towards this.
Sources say that the money would be released in two
months time when the agreement is signed between the
Ethiopian Ministry of Finance and Economic
Development (MoFED) and the French side.
According to Mussa, this grant will go towards
financing the comprehensive studies on the land fill
which demands 300 million to 400 million Br
additional cost for the actual construction.
The Addis Ababa Water and Sewerage Authority is in
charge of dealing with liquid waste from across the
city, while solid waste is the concern of the
agency. Of the over 500g solid waste each household
spews, only 60pc-65pc is disposed of appropriately.
The rest is put out in the villages and on the
streets, from where waste transporting trucks of the
agency collect it to pile it up at Repi.
When the Bole Aramsa modern-land fill goes
operational, the Repi waste disposal site will cease
to function for good and it will be reopened as a
park, according to Mussa. This idea might not be as
attractive to Yohaness and the over 600 individuals
like him who survive on the waste.
“How is it going to be done? Are they moving us too
when they move the waste to a different site?”
Yohanness enquires.
|
