Life at Kenya's Dandora rubbish dump

Business Daily

BBC

Business

4.4 • 816 Ratings

🗓️ 7 October 2021

⏱️ 17 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We go to Dandora, one of Africa’s largest rubbish tips. A court in Nairobi has ordered the dumpsite to come up with a concrete plan to close by February next year. But what will that mean for the community relying on the waste to survive? We hear about life at Dandora through the eyes of Liz Oteng’o, who grew up relying on airline meals dumped at the site. Vivienne Nunis hears how she and her husband Remco Pronk, are fighting to change the lives of those growing up there today. Image credit:Getty

Producers: Sarah Treanor, Lulu Luo

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Business Daily with me Vivienne Nunes. Today we're telling the story of one of the largest rubbish dumps in Africa, Nairobi's Dandora dump site, and the people whose livelihoods have depended on the waste that's been dumped there for nearly 50 years.
0:18.1	I went to school around here and I used to get my food at the down site.
0:23.4	We hear from one woman who grew up relying on airline food found at the site and asking
0:29.8	what will happen if Dandora is soon shut down. That's coming up on Business Daily from the BBC. This story starts with a celebration, a wedding that recently took place in the suburbs of Nairobi.
1:03.0	Elizabeth, a Remko-Juartman and...
1:15.6	Tying the knot a Remko prong from the Netherlands and... My name is Liz Othengo, I was born and raised up here.
1:21.6	This is Corogosho, so welcome to Corogosho, where the stories are made.
1:28.4	The story of how Liz and Remko met is a remarkable one,
1:32.9	and it begins in Corogosho, the informal settlement that borders the Dandora dump site.
1:39.0	It's a rubbish chip that extends for miles and miles.
1:42.7	Every day, all kinds of rubbish
1:44.8	generated by Nairobi's 4.5 million people,
1:48.5	as well as the city's businesses, factories and even hospitals,
1:52.7	ends up here.
1:54.2	Some of it is burned,
1:55.8	and nearby residents have long complained of toxic fumes.
1:59.9	When I was in Nairobi recently, I went to Koroagosho to see the dump site for myself.
2:07.4	Well, I'm just on the edge of a street in Kodogosho,
2:10.7	and there are some houses here, and a woman next to me is doing some washing.
2:16.5	And just a few metres away is the beginning of the Dandora
2:20.3	dump site. Far beyond from where I can see, there are mountains and mountains of rubbish. This site was
2:28.6	actually declared full back in 2001, but since then, every day more and more trucks have come and dumped more waste.
	...

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