Acrid smoke billows from the mountain of waste at the Dandora rubbish dump in Nairobi.

Plastic, glass, even medical waste - it's fresh pickings for the Marabou stalks and the people scavenging through the dump looking for recyclable materials.

The women sift through the waste - most with bare hands - for their livelihood.

A kilo of recyclable plastic waste goes for 17 shilling (0.14 USD) per kilogram at the dumpsite.

A bag of recyclable plastic ranges from 5 to 50 shilling (0.042 - 0.42 USD), depending on the size.

"We usually look for plastic bottles, carton boxes, gunny bags, bones and pig food. Yet we do this without protective gloves or gumboots so we sometimes get cuts from glass. We are really suffering," says Mariam Makeba, an informal waste picker.

But cuts from glass are the least concern for these women who feel they have option other than to work at the dump.

The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) warned that the Dandora dump has posed a serious health threat to those working and living nearby as far back as 2007.

And according to a report by The Endocrine Society and IPEN ((International Pollutants Elimination Network) in December 2020, there is evidence of human health impacts from many chemicals in common plastics including alterations to both male and female reproductive development and infertility.

Mother of six, Winfred Wanjira, spends her working days filling her sack with recyclable plastics to make enough money to feed her children.

"Sometimes you might unexpectedly lose your pregnancy. But when you change your environment, you can have a successful pregnancy. However, when you try to change your environment you may lack work opportunities and your children become hungry - you have no other option but to come back," she says.

"Medical professionals have advised us to stop working at the dumpsite. But where would I go if I stopped working here?"

24-year-old waste picker, Joyce Wangari says she is also experiencing issues with her reproductive health.

"I usually receive my period after every three months and yet I am not on contraceptives. However, at one point, I had a head injury, and had to change my environment for three months - I also got my period in those three months," says Joyce Wangari, informal waste picker.

The Dandora dumpsite is an informal workplace to about 10,000 women, children and a few men who scavenge through the piles of rubbish daily, according to a Concern Worldwide report from 2012.

The site was deemed full in 1996, but still scores of pickers roam.

And despite an Environment and Land court ordering the closure of the dumpsite in July 2021, they continue to operate.

The UNEP warn that air pollution created by the Dandora landfill poses a wide range of health risks for both workers and the community nearby.

Many materials that end up as waste contain toxic substances and people end up inhaling the noxious fumes from routine waste burning and methane fires, says the organisation.

A UNEP report titled 'Implications of the Dandora Municipal Dumping Site in Nairobi, Kenya' - states that skin disorders, cancers, respiratory abnormalities and blood disorders are just some of the public health effects that can be brought about by environmental pollution emanating from the dump site.

Heavy metals at high concentrations, as is the case in contaminated environments, can result in public health impacts, it goes on to say.

"Lead and mercury are heavy metals and most of the time the women who are working at the dumpsite, they are actually inhaling and at the same time ingesting this particular heavy metals. It is not only affecting reproductive health but it is also affecting the women and most women are actually ending up with cancer. Remember, mercury is one of the major metals associated with cancer. Lead the same," explains public health nurse at Maasai Mara University, Jacqueline Naulikha.

For mercury, samples collected from the waste dump exhibited a value of 46.7 ppm while those collected along the river bank registered a value of 18.6 ppm. Both of these values greatly exceeded the WHO acceptable exposure level of 2 ppm.

The concentration of lead in the soil samples ranged from 50-590 ppm. Soil samples from within the waste dump manifested a value of 13,500 ppm. This is a clear indication that the dumpsite is the major source of high lead levels found in the surrounding environment, according to UNEP.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency has set the maximum contaminant level goal for lead in drinking water at zero because lead can be harmful to human health even at low exposure levels.

"So, if a woman gets cancer and she is not aware that she has cancer, most of the time the first thing that is affected is her menstrual cycle. This could be one of the first signs, heavy bleeding. When she has heavy bleeding and that is irregular, it could be an early warning sign that this particular woman is actually having cancer, especially cancer of the reproductive parts," says Naulikha.

"It may affect the fertile period. When a woman is ovulating and ready to get pregnant, this is going to be affected and you may get that most women who work in Dandora, most of them may end up being childless because of the effect of mercury and lead," she adds.

In a bid to improve waste management, Kenya's 2021 Sustainable Waste Management Bill outlined objectives for county governments - to establish waste management infrastructure to promote source segregation, collection, reuse and provide central collection centres for materials that can be recycled

And on March 2nd this year (2022), the United Nations Environment Assembly decided to initiate negotiations for a global agreement to end plastic pollution at its meeting in Nairobi.

Dorothy Otieno, project officer for programs on plastics and waste management at the Centre for Environmental Justice and Development (CEJAD), explains the changes this could bring.

"The resolution that was passed by UNEA to end plastic pollution, one of the key benefits that we have been able to see from that is waste pickers being recognised. So the Intergovernmental negotiating committees are required to learn from the experiences of waste pickers because they have so much information just by working in the dumpsites," she says.

"And they are also recognised as people who play an integral part in the formal waste management system. So with this, we are hoping that countries like Kenya to be among this (inaudible) championing for the rights of waste pickers and formalised and included in all policy and waste management processes."

A glimmer of hope for the future, but today even knowing the severe health impacts coming to this dump poses, the women, the children and the men keep coming. For them it is the only way to feed their families. - Africanews

(Bujumbura, 20 July 2022) United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths released a US$1 million contribution from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to assist around 340,000 people in the affected areas by the Rift Valley fever (RVF) in the Republic of Burundi.

The RVF primarily affects livestock, cattle in particular, and small ruminants. Livestock is one of the key sectors of the national economy accounting for 14% of GDP. Loss of animal livestock for farmers has considerable impacts on family livelihoods, representing losses of both assets and sources of revenue, potentially pushing entire families into deeper poverty, food insecurity and malnutrition. To date, there are no report of humans contracting the disease in Burundi, though human infection remains a possibility, through mosquito bites or for people in direct contact with infected animals.

CERF funds are allocated to the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO). WHO’s project focuses on controlling the spread of the disease with measures such as training medical professionals, and ensuring availability of analysis equipment to detect infections, as well as disinfection of areas at the epicenter of the spread. For its project, FAO will focus on infected animals, their treatments and ensuring food security through activities such as veterinarian training, animal spraying, establishment of national regulated channels for animal sourced food, and an active epidemiologic surveillance. These early response projects from the WHO and FAO will ensure limited spreading of the disease and adequate medical and veterinarian training, including for future outbreaks therefore reducing their impacts.

WHO mentioned that “this allocation of funds will save lives by controlling the transmission of the disease. It will be used to carry out activities to control the spread of the disease in order to prevent animals from being contaminated and thus stop the chain of propagation.” FAO added that “funds allocated will allow immediate actions aimed at reducing the spread while mobilizing other resources to control the epizootic disease through vaccination.”

UN Resident Coordinator Damien Mama said he was “very grateful to CERF for their timely response in allocating the funds to combat RVF, it makes it possible for the WHO and FAO to amplify assistance in the affected provinces.” Currently 50% of the most vulnerable people in the country and targeted through the Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) for Burundi live in the provinces where RVF is prevalent. As of 19 July, the HRP funding received 5.1% of the required $182 million. This critically low level of funding is hindering humanitarian assistance.

CERF pools contributions from donors around the world into a single fund allowing humanitarians to deliver life-saving assistance whenever and wherever crises hit. Throughout the years, CERF allocated more than $70 million for 102 projects in Burundi.

The mission of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is to mobilize and coordinate effective and principled humanitarian action in partnership with national and international actors.

For further information, please contact:
Ms. Noroarisoa Rakotomalala-Rakotondrandria, Head of Office, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Tel. +257 72 11 11 55
Mr. Antoine Lemonnier, Public Information Officer, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Tel. +257 72 11 11 56
OCHA press releases are available at www.unocha.org or www.reliefweb.int.

- UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

A Bill that aims to improve access to sexual and reproductive health services for women and girls in six East African countries faces a tough uphill battle to approval, with opposition from conservatives who claim that it would promote abortion and LBGTQ rights

Over the past week, the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) has conducted public hearings on East African Community Sexual and Reproductive Health Bill 2021 in its six member states, Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda.

Various members of the legislative assembly have been trying for five years to pass a Bill to address the very high maternal mortality and teen pregnancy rates in region.

At the public hearings in the capital cities of the member states, the Bill received support from a range of maternal health and sexual and reproductive health practitioners, academics and activists, particularly in Kenya.

But it also faced opposition from a number of conservative and religious organisations, including international right-wing organisations such as CitizenGo and Empowered Youth Coalition, some of which made objections at public hearings claiming that the Bill is pro-abortion and pro-LBGTQ rights.

In the past, various Catholic organisations have opposed the Bill, and at the Nairobi hearings held last week, the Catholic Doctors Association was one of the groups opposing the Bill.

Ending female genital mutilation

The aims of the Bill are to protect and facilitate the SRH and rights of all people in the region, provide for the progressive realisation of SRH information and services and prohibit harmful practices such as female genital mutilation and forced sterilisation.

It also aims to prevent newborn, child mortality and maternal mortality and “facilitate and promote reduction and elimination of unsafe abortions, HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, early and unintended pregnancies”.

Article 16 of the Bill states that a woman should be able to terminate her pregnancy if, in the opinion of a health professional, there is a need for emergency treatment, it endangers her mental or physical health or life, or is the result of rape or incest.

But it also provides for member states to use their own laws to decide what to do in such situations.

The region is in desperate need of improved SRH services. According to a 2020 EALA scorecard (see below), many member states are lagging behind in agreed-on targets on reproductive health and HIV, particularly South Sudan, which is not on track to meet any targets.

South Sudan’s maternal mortality rate of 730 women per 100,000 is one of the worst in the world, while only Rwanda and Tanzania are on track to meet maternal mortality targets.

EALA has tried to introduce a Bill on SRH since 2017 but faced various obstacles, including having to start from scratch when the term of the previous assembly ended and new representatives were sworn in. 

The current Bill has been introduced by South Sudan’s EALA representative Kennedy Mukulia as a Private Members’ Bill.

However, Mukulia has faced vilification and online harassment including a CitizenGo petition calling for his removal for sponsoring the Bill.

The Bill aims to give expression to Article 118 of the East African Community (EAC) Treaty, in terms of which member states have committed to providing reproductive health services to their citizens. But a number of member states do not have laws or policies in regard to a number of issues and the Bill aims to provide guidance in cases where there are legal vacuums. 

The EALA General Purpose Committee has 30 days to send a report on the public hearings to the Speaker, and thereafter it should be tabled and debated. However, it still faces an uphill battle in the male-dominated legislature, where a number of members objected to earlier versions of the Bill. 

Should the Bill be passed, each member state will have to report to the secretary-general of the EAC on the status of its implementation every two years.

The secretary-general is obliged to report to the EALA on each country’s progress, and one state can even bring legal action against another at the East African Court of Justice.

Teen girls ‘desperately need’ SRH services

Almost one-third of women in developing countries had their first baby in their teens, a UNFPA  report released last week shows.

“When nearly a third of all women in developing countries are becoming mothers during adolescence, it is clear the world is failing adolescent girls,” said UNFPA Executive Director Dr Natalia Kanem. “The repeat pregnancies we see among adolescent mothers are a glaring signpost that they desperately need sexual and reproductive health information and services.”

“Complications in pregnancy and childbirth are the leading cause of death among girls aged 15 to 19 years, who are also far more likely to suffer a litany of other violations of their human rights, from forced marriage and intimate partner violence to serious mental health impacts of bearing children before they are out of childhood themselves,” according to UNFPA. - Kerry Cullinan, Health Policy Watch