Imagine walking into a community for adventure and the next minute you observe the place is filled with garbage? Do the people of the community not regard personal hygiene?
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On the outskirts of Cairo, specifically in the base of Mokattam hills, there lies a city named Manshiyat Nas
ser
, also known as “Garbage City”. Manshiyat Nasser is a slum area that became home for 262.000 Egyptian people who live under the poverty line.
These people are then called as the Zabbaleen People, a term in Egyptian
Arabic with the meaning “Garbage Pe
ople”. Just like the nickname suggests, Manshiyat Nasser is filled with garbage that is scattered throughout the city, on the streets, in the city’s corner, and even on roofs and high-rise buildings.
The city also lacks basic infrastructures such as electricity, water, and sewage system. Manshiyat Nasser received garbage from Cairo, and the Zabbaleen people make a living from collecting and recycling the waste that they received.
The origin of Zabbaleen people itself can be traced back to the year 1940, in which farmers from North Egypt migrated due to poverty and crop failures.
Ini
tially, these people started a new
leaf by raising pig, chicken, and goat. However, they turned out to become a waste collector and recycler of Cairo’s waste, which turns out to be more profitable.
The existence of Manshiyat Nasser as a garbage city as well as the Zabbaleen people who reside in it has been around for 70 years. This condition is also caused by the absence of Cairo’s efficient waste management system.
Zabbaleen people collect garbage from Cairo by offering an individual waste pickup from one house to another with a small amount of fee. That garbage is
then transported to Manshiyat Nasser using
trucks or donkey cart.
Upon arrival, the garbage is sorted into two main categories: recyclable and non-recyclable. The waste processing is done collectively, and the Zabbaleen people have their own roles, either in collecting, transporting, and sorting waste.
Usually, the activity of collecting and transporting waste is done by men, whereas women and children are assigned in waste-sorting.
Moreover, every member of the family usually sorts of waste based on different categories. For instance, a husband’s duty is to sort the plastic waste while the wife sorts the paper one.
Even though the waste sort-sorting process sounds simple and conventional, Zabbaleen people are proven to be impressive in terms of waste management, as the city’s recycling rate is as high as 85% from a total of 7,000 tons of waste that they received every day.
As a city, Manshiyat Nasser has its own rules, such as the allocation of area and waste for each household, which should not be violated. With such systems, the Garbage City of Cairo is fully independent of and relies fully on the waste that they rece
ived. They even have their own stores, cafes, a
nd local schools for children.
It can be said that the Zabbaleen people have very important roles for Cairo since they were the ones who managed the waste that is produced, otherwise, the citizens of Cairo could drown in their own garbage.
Unfortunately, besides the filthy environment, the living condition of Zabbaleen people is far from ideal. They are still under-appreciated because other people saw their job of managing waste as dirty, which makes them look inferior.
Moreover, Zabbaleen people also suffer discrimination because they are Coptic Christian living among the Muslim majority in Cairo.
Even though they are often underappreciated, the Zabbaleen people are not ashamed of what they do. In fact, they ta
ke pride in themselves for being able to feed their
families from the act of managing waste and indirectly solve environmental problems.
Apart from whether or not they feel content with their job, the Zabbaleen people have the right to a better livelihood, since the life expectancy of Zabbaleen people itself depends on the types of work that they do.
To begin with, the activity of collecting and managing waste requires a huge amount of labor, and the Zabbaleen often feel exhausted after a day’s work.
Moreover, adult men whose task is to carry garbage on their backs often have backache as a result. Then there is also the problem regarding accidents at work, ranging from being exposed to medical waste, touching shards of glass without using proper gloves, and many more.
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