By Petronella Sibeene
WINDHOEK
Their adrenaline levels start rising as soon as they see a truck coming to empty the trash, and as soon as it is done, they are ready to pounce on the garbage.
For the impatient, they swing aloft the moving truck already foraging for a piece of metal, a crushed cool drink can or anything they think can be turned into something “valuable”.
Some slip off the moving vehicle and get hurt, others get partially buried in the trash as the truck offloads.
Bartholameus Kombahe, a frequent visitor to the Swakopmund dumpsite has seen it all.
“Two people have died since last year after being run over by the trucks. They were trying to get to the garbage,” he related.
Kombahe, a family man with no other income, is one of the hundreds of residents of DRC settlement in Swakopmund who scramble over fetid hills of other people’s trash to eke out a living.
Many of these residents are jobless women and youths. For them, the dump has become a lifeline and an informal workplace.
“We collect pieces of copper wire, tins and any metal that can be re-cycled.
We also look for anything edible for our dogs and ourselves,” he says.
The people head for the rubbish dump as early as six in the morning and only leave as late as 22h00.
With a good command of English, Kombahe says “there are approximately 150 people who come to this place every day”.
The pieces of metal collected are sold to scrap metal and west coast recyclers.
A kilogramme of copper wire costs N$22, while aluminum is sold at N$5. Stainless steel costs N$7 and iron goes for 60 cents per kg.
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