(18 Aug 2024)
MALI DONKEYS GARBAGE
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
LENGTH: 3:31
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Bamako, Mali – 10 July 2024
1. Trash collector Yacouba Diallo driving his donkey cart during morning trash pickup
2. Various of Diallo picking up trash in Badalabougou neighborhood
3. SOUNDBITE (Bambara) Yacouba Diallo, trash collector:
"I want to do this work with a truck, but I don’t have the means to buy one, so I use the donkeys and the cart. To the people in charge of waste, I ask them to remove the garbage from the dump site, so that I can do my work properly. The dump has become a mountain of garbage.”
4. Various of donkeys carrying trash up Badalabougou trash dump
5. Various of site manager Mamadou Sidibe writing down names of trash collectors
6. SOUNDBITE (Bambara) Mamadou Sidibe, manager of Badalabougou trash site:
“We manage the site here. We manage the money at the end of each month, this is our job. As you can see, the donkey carts come here, and we write down their names. The advantage of using the donkeys for this can’t be overestimated. We work with the donkey carts, a car can’t even access this place.”
7. Various of donkeys and trash collectors struggling to get carts full of waste up Badalabougou trash site
8. SOUNDBITE (French) Bamadou Sidibe, waste management specialist and former city employee:
“The institutions that must intervene and deal with the issue of waste management are not fully playing their role. For example, the state. The state must build the infrastructure, and among this infrastructure, there is the construction of landfills that must receive all the waste from the city of Bamako. Well, from independence until today, Bamako does not have operational landfills that meet the accepted standards.”
9. Various of residents rummaging through trash, looking for valuable items
10. Various of donkeys and trash collectors struggling to get carts full of waste up Badalabougou trash site
11. Various of the Badalabougou trash site seen from surrounding neighborhoods
STORYLINE:
LEADIN:
Donkeys have a crucial role in trash collection in Mali’s capital.
But experts say Bamako needs better infrastructure to cope with the mounting piles of refuse that blight the city.
STORYLINE:
The beasts of burden trying to keep Mali’s capital clean.
Yacouba Diallo uses donkeys Keita and Kanté to pull his cart around Bamako, collecting trash from the streets.
The city is drowning in waste, and the animals are on the frontline in the battle to manage it.
They are a more affordable alternative to motorised vehicles.
Yacouba Diallo is one of the many donkey cart drivers who are paid directly by households and can make up to 100,000 FCFA a month, or around $165.
"I want to do this work with a truck, but I don’t have the means to buy one, so I use the donkeys and the cart. To the people in charge of waste, I ask them to remove the garbage from the dump site, so that I can do my work properly. The dump has become a mountain of garbage,” says Diallo.
This is the mountain of garbage he’s talking about – Badalabougou dump.
Trash collectors and their donkeys bring their hauls here and to other similarly overrun trash dumps.
Though the city’s network of donkey carts runs entirely outside of the state’s control and may seem haphazard, there are systems of organization that have evolved to manage the workers.
Mamadou Sidibe is one of the managers of the Badalabougou trash site.
He notes all of the collectors who come through the site in a small notebook.
AP Video shot by Moustapha Diallo.
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