Cambodian Garbage Scavengers Face Deadly Health Risks
In countries around the world, hundreds of thousands of poor people face daily hazards to earn meager livings by scavenging for recyclable goods. In Cambodia, hundreds of scavenger families find their lives changing - they will lose their homes and livelihoods when the government closes the dump where they work. Rory Byrne has this report from Phnom Penh.
Officially, it is the Steung Meanchey landfill site, but those who live here call it Smokey Mountain.
Steung Meanchey dump is a seven-hectare mountain of smoking garbage on the outskirts of the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh. Here some 2,000 workers, including about 600 children, sift through 700 tons of garbage a day.
In developing countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, garbage scavengers are among the poorest workers. In Cambodia, they typically earn about one dollar a day.
Ten-year-old Ya has been recycling bottles and cans at the dump for three years.
He says the situation here is terrible. He has to get up very early to work and finishes late in the evening. Ya says his life is very difficult. Collecting garbage brings him less than $1 a day which is not nearly enough to cover his expenses.
Most of the scavengers live in wooden shacks around the dump. There is no access to clean water or sanitation and epidemics are commonplace.
The risks here are high. Sharp-edged metals and broken glass leave nasty wounds. And garbage scavengers suffer high rates of serious diseases, such as hepatitis, tuberculosis and even AIDS. A number of scavengers have been killed or seriously injured when they were run over by garbage trucks.
She says it is very dangerous to work here - people can step on metal shards or nails for example or get hit and crushed by the dump trucks. She says she has injured herself with many things, like old needles.
Annette Jensen is the director of A New Day, a charity that provides free food, shelter and schooling to more than 100 children from Steung Meanchey dump.
“To see the children miserable, dirty, sad looking at the garbage dump and then have them arrive with their little plastic bag with all their belongings and move into the center. And to see their excitement about taking a shower. To see their excitement about getting their little bag of shampoo. And to see them clean, putting on their school uniform and going to school has just been amazing,” says Jensen.
But most of those working on Cambodia’s landfills are not so lucky, and for children like Ya, going to school remains a distant dream,
Ya has he would go to school if he could stop working at the dump. He says he wants to go to school but cannot because his family is so poor.
Ya and his family now face a new challenge: the government plans to close Steung Meanchey and relocate the 535 families living there to land about 50 kilometers south of Phnom Penh.
The government will let them have tiny plots on which to build new homes. An official in charge of the project notes the location is near Udong Mountain, a tourist site, so that there are jobs available in the region. And he says, families are not being forced to move, but most are volunteering.
Still, no families have left so far. Many scavengers say they will be happy to leave the dump, but they are worried that they will not be able to make a living because the relocation camp is too far away from the city.
Indonesia Approves Controversial Anti-Pornography Law
Indonesia’s parliament passed a controversial anti-pornography bill which critics argue could be used against the country’s minority Christian and Hindu populations and threatens the nation’s tradition of tolerance and diversity. VOA correspondent Nancy-Amelia Collins has more from Jakarta.
To shouts of “Alhamdulillah” , meaning “thanks be to God” Indonesian lawmakers passed into law Thursday an anti-pornography bill which Islamist parties say is needed to save the country from immoral behavior.
The bill was first introduced in 1999 and has gone through numerous revisions amid controversyover what defines pornography.
Just recently the law was revised to allow women to wear bikinis at tourist resorts.
The new law outlaws pornographic acts and the dissemination of sexual images. Those who break the law face up to 12 years in prison.
The bill was pushed by a small group of Islamist parties who say it is needed to protect the young and raise society’s moral standards.
Two opposition parties, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle and the Christian Prosperous and Peace Party walked out in protest when parliament passed the bill into law.
Legislator Nursjahbani Katjasungkana from the National Awakening Party says the passage of the bill may give the small but very vocal Islamic fundamentalist groups license to launch attacks, called sweepings here, on women they deem dressed inappropriately, or TV stations running “sexy” ads.
“The first fear is encroachment of the fundamentalist groups and so on because they perceive this law as tool for them to do a sweeping and so on,” Nursjahbani said.
The bill has also been condemned by the country’s minority Christians and Hindus as well as some tribal groups who say the law is too vague and could be used against them by Muslim hardliners.
Legislator Nursjahbani says she does not believe the law will be effective in curbing pornography.
“I don’t think this law can be effective in the education of porn,” Nursjahbani said. “The essence of pornography is about the message against violence, domination, and conquest. But in this definition in this law - I don’t think that the message is delivered.”
Indonesia has the world’s largest population of Muslims. It is a secular and democratic nation that recognizes other religions and has a long tradition of tolerance and diversity.
Pakistan Quake Survivors Bury Dead, Brace For Winter
Rescue efforts continue in southwest Pakistan, where the official death toll from Wednesday’s magnitude 6.4 earthquake reached 215. VOA’s Barry Newhouse reports from Islamabad that providing shelter for homeless families is now a top priority.
Rescue workers are still trying to determine the extent of the damage in the rugged, mountainous area of Baluchistan Province, but say it appears as many as 5,000 homes were either collapsed or severely damaged by the tremor.
Non-government organizations say the actual death toll is probably around 400, but the official tally is lower because remote villages and quick burials make counting difficult.
Military spokesman General Salim Nawaz says rescue efforts are going smoothly and most of the dead have been buried. He says there are no reports Thursday of locating survivors buried under wreckage.
Baluchistan’s governor, Nawab Zulfiqar Magsi, told reporters that the main focus now is taking care of survivors. He says it is really cold here and we need blankets, clothes and tents. He says it will take time to rebuild destroyed homes.
Residents in the area build their own houses using mud, wood and grass. They say cold weather makes construction nearly impossible during the winter and they will have to wait until March to rebuild.
For now, aid organizations and Pakistan’s military say they have provided about 4,000 winterized tents for families, but some have yet to reach remote areas.
Hassan Moazam is the country director for the international aid group Care. He says he visited a village called Wom near the epicenter.
“That place is very remote and very cold. I was there during the evening time and at night the temperature goes sub-zero,” he said. “Especially the women and young children, they were all sitting under open skies, so it is quite a challenge for these families to survive under open skies without any shelter.”
Moazam says the scope of the damage is much less than the devastating 2005 earthquake in northeast Pakistan that killed about 80,000 people. But he says non-government aid groups are still assessing the extent of the damage and will issue a report on Friday.
