People who throw out their household waste in the Tunisian capital city do not know, and cannot begin to imagine, that there are others waiting impatiently for that waste in search of their daily bread.
People who throw out their household waste in the Tunisian capital city do not know, and cannot begin to imagine, that there are others waiting impatiently for that waste in search of their daily bread.
In Sidi Hussein, a dumping site known as the Burj Shakeer Mountain in El-Sijoumi, in a western suburb of Tunis, tons of waste arrives daily from the provinces of greater Tunis. Between 100 and 150 people—from children to the elderly— come here in search of scraps of livelihood. Some have dark skin and dirty, cheap clothes and come during at all hours of the day and night in every season—they are known as the Berbacha.
“I left my family and my land, which has become infertile and dying of thirst. I joined this profession to secure a source of income,” says Nasser, who is originally from Sidi Bouzid but travels to Shakeer Mountain during the week to earn money.
He eats leftover food and sweets to collect enough money to go back to his province and to provide for his five children. “I spend the weekend with them and I return to this dumping yard to continue my journey.”
Brutal schedule
The daily struggle of other Berbacha like Nasser begins when the sanitation trucks arrive at the dumping site. The Berbacha quickly sort through the waste and organize them according to their potential use: items good for selling, recyclables like plastic and metals such as copper, lead, iron and aluminum and some for personal use such as cloths, toys and food.
On a good day, they earn between 10 – 20 dinars, but not without great risks. Common injuries among the Berbacha range from bruises and fractures to respiratory, chest and bone afflictions. Sometimes, the price is even higher.
“An old woman died while she was digging in the rubbish, said El-Bu Thawri, a Bebecha in his late 20s. “She did not see the waste truck coming and she immediately died.”
The world inside the dump
A fence surrounds the site and a security center next to it is supervised by two and sometimes three guards. Near the fence, there are small huts with roofs made of refrigerators or old cars and their walls made of stones that are collected from the Shakeer Mountain. The beds inside are made of cartons.
The administrative offices of the multinational Italian institution also lies adjacent to the dump, which receives hundreds of tons of wastes in accordance with an agreement signed between this institution and the waste management agency of the Tunisian Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development. Yet the Berbecha live outside the law or any private or public authority.
“We are living corpses,” says Thawri. “No one cares for us and the authorities only make worthless promises. We do not trust the government nor the media which only speaks about our suffering without making any real impact on our lives.”
A unique relationship
Walid, an environmental engineer who specializes in the recycling of waste says the relations between the Italian institution and the Berbacha, is mutually beneficial. “On the one hand, the presence of the Berbacha disrupts the work of the employees and does not allow them to perform their duties as they should. On the other hand, the work of the Berbacha is important because it contributes to the recycling process. They sort the wastes and this is an environmental gain.”
Dr. Hassan Mori, a sociologist who recently completed a field study on the conditions of Berbacha families said that most of the Berbacha in this yard are known to local authorities. “They are those who left their schools, the illiterate, who cannot read or write and those who have criminal records and who cannot find job opportunities because of those records.”
Yet the Berbacha have developed an organized system of labor within their community. Those who lead the work groups are the biggest families and young men protect the collected garbage. Children usually perform the role of scouts in the race. However, the upper hand is that of the company investing in the yard and which closely watches the race and the police who are watching it from a distance.
When there is a conflict or a dispute, it is usually resolved by the power of the family. There are four strong families dominating the place and they have the exclusive right to collect garbage. Sometimes, an entire family might work at digging though the garbage and many families get help from women and children, as it takes many hands to earn even a destitute living collecting trash.
