Integrating the Informal: Sustainable Waste Management in Managua, Nicaragua
Throughout the developing world, the growing presence of informal settlements presents a complicated issue for the management of cities. Although not legally entitled to receive public services like emergency response, utilities, or the removal of solid waste, city governments cannot responsibly ignore the problems faced by residents of these areas. Regardless of whether the municipality recognizes the right of squatters to live where they do, their problems inevitably become problems for citizens of the city proper. The management of solid waste is an important example of this kind of problem. Allowed to accumulate or disposed of improperly, such wastes generate serious hazards to human health and the environment. As populations in informal settlements are projected to expand with increasing global population and urbanization, the problem of waste management in these settlements is a cause for growing concern (UN-HABITAT). Adding to the complexity of this issue is the fact that many of those who live in squatter communities depend on access to this waste to make their living. The capital city of Nicaragua provides a characteristic example of the complex problems waste management can present, as well as indicating solutions that can increase sustainability while providing opportunities to alleviate poverty and improve the urban environment. This research paper focuses on the economic forces and practical difficulties surrounding provision of waste collection and processing services for the municipal and informal city sectors, and uses Managua as a case study and example for what does and does not work well.
Literature Review
Most of the available scholarly literature is from primary research studies undertaken by researchers from the various social sciences, with differing but relevant focus and perspectives. One of the most informative studies by sociologists Dr. María José Zapata Campos and Patrick Zapata explores the organizing of household solid waste management collection and disposal practices in informal settlements, and focused particularly on a case study of an NGO project supporting Manos Unidas (Joined Hands), an informal waste picker cooperative in Managua. Using horse carts, the waste pickers collect household solid waste from informal settlements where there was no official waste collection service previously.
Two articles published by Dr. Martin Medina were also valuable sources. Medina is the foremost expert on the informal recycling sector and solid waste policy and planning. He is the author of the book The World's Scavengers: Salvaging for Sustainable Consumption and Production, and has collaborated with academic, nongovernmental and international organizations on waste management projects in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. His paper for the World Institute for Development Economics Research examines the challenges and opportunities that exist in improving the management of waste in Latin America and other developing nations. It is argued that, “despite a worsening trend, there are opportunities for reducing pollution, alleviating poverty, improving the urban environment, and lowering greenhouse gas emissions…by implementing low-cost, low-tech, labor-intensive methods that promote community participation and involve informal refuse collectors and waste-pickers.” Evidence from several cities is discussed.
In another source study by Christopher D. Hartmann, ethnographic field data were analyzed to explore themes of tension and conflict as experienced by informal waste pickers at the Managua, Nicaragua municipal waste site. Special attention was paid to two recent events in the waste site: the announcement of a large-scale development project that would radically change municipal solid waste management practices at the site and a month-long strike carried out by waste pickers.
A photojournalistic essay/article by Douglas Haynes discusses precariousness of settlements in the contaminated flood zone, and negative health effects experienced by local residents, taken from experiences visiting and talking with families of El Fondo (“The Bottom”), a neighborhood adjacent to Acahualinca on the same shore of Lake Managua. Another journalistic source includes a locally produced news and commentary blog site Revista Envio, which features essays and articles on issues in the city and greater Nicaragua. Other sources were news articles on “Proyecto La Chureca”, a plan to overhaul the dump, provide housing for those who used to live in it, and construct a modern, sanitary recycling center where some of the churequeros now can work legitimately for the city.
For facts on the export market for recycled materials I drew from trade reports showing distribution and value of exports and imports of various recycled materials shipping to and from Nicaragua. On the environmental health hazards of methane gas, I drew from a presentation by the World Bank’s Solid Waste Management Advisor on health and environmental hazards associated with current waste management situation in developing countries. A UN report on population growth in slum settlements and associated problems was another source for factual data.
Finally, an interesting perspective on the nature of relations between social groups within the city was provided by Dennis Rodgers’ study exploring “the emergence of a new pattern of spatial segregation linked to rising urban insecurity” in Managua during the past decade and a half. He argues that “Rather than fragmenting into an archipelago of isolated ‘fortified enclaves’, as has been the case in other cities around the world, Managua has undergone a process whereby a whole layer of the metropolis has been ‘disembedded’ from the general fabric of the city through the constitution of an exclusive ‘fortified network’ for the urban elites, based on the privatization of security and the construction of high-speed roads and roundabouts. This pattern of urban governance diverges significantly from Managua’s historical experience, and rests upon new urban developments that have explicitly favored the urban elites, both directly and indirectly.”
Methodology:
Having been to Managua and seen its littered streets and city dump, I developed an interest in it, but did not record interviews or conduct primary research on the subject of waste management while I was there. As I am no longer able to conduct primary research on the subject, I made use of the published research of others to get a picture of what the situation has been like and how it is changing. From these articles I found facts on how the city’s public sanitation department is funded and what it consists of as far as personnel and equipment. I also found statistics on how much waste is collected and uncollected by city officials. Through interviews and observations of the formal and informal collectors and recyclers, I believe the research I drew from was able to accurately describe the role of scavengers in municipal waste management, and uncovered some important implications for the local economy. In addition to analyzing the economic forces at work, there is consideration given to the history that informs the present situation, as well as related health and environmental concerns.
Discussion:
An Overburdened Municipality
In Managua, the city’s 1.2 million residents produce an estimated 1,200 metric tons of garbage a day on average - this is collected by 450 workers along 132 routes, using a fleet of more than 80 vehicles (Revista Envio, #321). Only about half of these are modern compaction trucks (donated in 2008 by the Italian government), with the rest being an assorted collection of pickup trucks and other vehicles suited to the purpose. For a fee, household waste is collected three times a week, which residents are expectedto bring out to the truck just as it is passing by (Campos, p227). The waste collection fee for this service only covers approximately 30 percent of the costs, and so funding from the municipal budget must pay for the rest. The collection, transportation, and disposal of municipal solid waste management usually accounts for 30–50 per cent of municipal operational budgets. To give a rough estimate of what the costs today may be, in 2003 the Municipal income of Managua was 42 million in U.S. dollars (Revista Envio, #264). Despite even these high expenses, cities typically collect only 50–80 per cent of the refuse generated (Medina 2010, p1-2). In 2009, Managua's Dirección de Limpieza Pública (Public Sanitation Department) reported they collected 80 percent of solid waste generated by the city's 670 barrios. This means that approximately 300 tons of garbage goes uncollected every day, much of which is dumped in 700 spontaneous dumps located throughout the city (Hartmann, p148). This trash often winds up in drainage canals that then got clogged and overflow when it rains, causing flooding of streets and homes. As inadequate as this service is for the citizens of Managua proper, it is clearly even less capable of providing waste collection for residents of the city’s slums. Though the city may try at times, conventional methods of collection are made impractical for much of the area by unpaved and disorderly roads with low-hanging cables that obstruct the passage of would-be collection trucks. Of the trash that is collected, nearly all of it is taken to “La Chureca”, the slang name for the city dump.
La Chureca
The land that came to be known as La Chureca is situated along the shore of what was once known as Lake Xolotlan in the poorest of the nine sectors of Barrio Acahualinca, already one of the poorest and oldest neighborhoods in Managua. Its usage as a public dumping ground is believed to have begun in 1973, immediately after the devastating earthquake of December 23, 1972 made rubble of approximately 75% of homes and 90% of commercial buildings in Managua (Hartmann, p147). The land was previously vacant, being too marshy and prone to flooding to be deemed suitable for agriculture or residential development. Residents of Acahualinca would reportedly use this land along the shore of now Lake Managua for fishing, hunting, and collecting firewood. Soon after the earthquake however, city-owned trucks began arriving steadily to deposit load upon load of rubble and trash in the newly designated municipal waste site. Over the decades since, La Chureca grew to become the largest open-air landfill in Central America, covering over 42 hectares of land (Revista Envio, #321). Due in part to its close proximity to the dump, Lake Managua is now the most contaminated lake in Central America, and was dubbed “the world's biggest sewage lake” by the firm Global Water Intelligence (Haynes, p169).
From 1927 until 2009, all the raw sewage of Managua was pumped directly into the lake, so at the time La Chureca was designated it may not have occurred to the government that there was cause to be further concerned for its cleanliness, but this site for the dump was poorly chosen for a number of reasons. In addition to being located on seismically active land, toxins and waste residue flow directly into Lake Managua via both surface runoff and by seeping unimpeded through the sandy soil under ground (Hartmann, p150). According to studies by the Department of Medicine at Managua’s National University (UNAN-Managua) and a Swedish university, children living in and around La Chureca have high mercury and lead levels in their blood from toxins in the garbage and the fish in the contaminated lake. They calculate that at least 30% of the 240 children studied suffer from this dangerous contamination (Revista Envio, #321).
Additional hazards of the open dump are the air pollution of toxic smoke from fires and explosions spontaneously started by methane – a flammable greenhouse gas 20 times more potent than CO2 in trapping the sun’s heat - is generated in landfills by the decomposition of organic materials (Cointreau). Food wastes also attract vermin, which can transmit diseases to humans living nearby.
Los Churequeros
Of course, it has become a cause for international concern that many humans do in fact live near and within the dump, and have for at least as long as La Chureca has been where it is. Along with the rubble of the earthquake, thousands of the newly made homeless and destitute came to the shore of Lake Managua to settle in shantytowns, attracted by the resources the landfill could provide. The waste collected there was a source for the sustenance of food, clothing, and income that was not to be forthcoming through government leadership. Although millions in foreign aid came pouring into the country to fund reconstruction after the earthquake, the Somoza dictatorship pocketed this money and left the city center condemned, with the city’s newly unemployed and homeless left to fend for themselves. By 1979, when the Sandinistas took power, “approximately one-quarter of Managua's 500,000 residents, displaced by the earthquake and revolution, had sought refuge in slums along the polluted southern shores of Lake Managua” (Hartmann, p150). The Sandinista government made efforts to provide housing for the displaced and destitute, but state resources were soon drained by civil war against the Contras (Rodgers, p115). Today it is estimated that 40% of Managua’s residents live in these squatter settlements (Campos, p228).
Although in recent years much has been done to remove the residents of La Chureca to a safe distance from the hazards of the waste and provide them with decent housing, picking through the trash continues to be the only livelihood available for many area residents. In a 2012 article for the Journal of Latin American Geography, it was estimated that 1,200 to 2000 still scavenge daily at the municipal waste site in search of salvageable materials that can be sold for recycling, as well as reparable and re-usable items they can sell or use themselves (Medina 2010, p6; Hartmann, p144). In 2008, the number was approximately 3,000 (Revista Envio, #321). To these “churequeros” the city's discarded waste is a valuable resource.
Valuing Waste
According to recent export market reports for Nicaragua, there is good profit to be made in sale of recovered metals, cotton and yarn wastes, plastic polymers, and even paperboard. Nicaragua both imports and exports these recycled materials to be used as raw inputs to industrial production in Costa Rica, Guatemala, Taiwan, and South Korea (Parker). In Managua in 2008, it was reported, “recycling the city's waste generates between US$20 and US$40 million annually” (Hartmann, p153). This same year, due to the global economic crisis causing a decrease in industrial demand, average daily wages from waste collection dropped from 3-4$US to 1-2$US. In other countries, such as Cairo, the informal refuse collectors have been observed to regularly earn three times the city’s minimum wage. Another study found that informal refuse collectors of Nuevo Laredo, a Mexican city on the Texas border, earn five times the minimum wage, putting them in the city’s top 3 per cent of income earners (Medina 1998).
The way the market typically works is that individuals sell items to middlemen, who then resell to scrap dealers, who resell to industrial clients who purchase in quantities no smaller than a truckload - and only materials that are sorted, cleaned and processed (cardboard and paper into bales, plastics into granulates, etc.). A likely reason for the comparatively much lower wages of Managua’s churequeros is that scavengers operating alone cannot perform these post-collection functions and so are generally at the mercy of the middlemen, who may run rigged scales and sometimes exercise the monopsonistic power of a market consisting of a single buyer (Medina 2008, p27).
Fierce Competition for Access
In March 2008, mounting concern by churequeros over decreasing access to the solid waste from which they gleaned their livelihoods culminated in a “strike” where city dump-trucks were prevented from unloading at La Chureca. For a month, churequeros blocked access to the dump and threw rocks at any truck that would attempt to enter. The stated complaint was that the official garbage workers were cutting into their source of survival by separating out the valuable recyclable materials to resell for themselves before the churequeros could have their chance to recover it. For the churequeros, informal waste recovery is virtually the only means of subsistence available to them. Therefore in order to protect their right to subsistence, they felt it necessary to demand their right to the city's trash (Hartmann, p154). This was also in the year soon after The Spanish Agency for International Development & Cooperation (AECID) announced its 30 million Euro plan for La Chureca's complete overhaul, and so the strike may have been inspired partly in response to perceived threats from this project. Resolution of the strike finally came when representatives of La Chureca met with the Managua Sanitation Department and jointly agreed that the city sanitation workers should receive a 40% wage increase in exchange for their agreement not to remove recyclables en route to the dump. Unfortunately this had little to no effect on the incomes of churequeros. In 2010, most interviewed agreed the situation had not changed (Hartmann, p154).
Organization
Following the 2008 strike, many churequeros decided to unionize in order to gain greater bargaining power and be recognized as suppliers of a valuable service. The General Secretary of the Trabajadores por Cuenta Propia (Self-Employed Workers' Union) noted, "We the workers of La Chureca weren't recognized as workers by society because we were only seen as churequeros. But today we are legally represented before the FNT (National Workers' Front) and Ministry of Labor" (quoted in Hartmann, p154). This is a positive development for the workers, because it has been shown that organization and formalization of scavenging activities can render several benefits, such as job security, stability, higher incomes, and empowerment (Medina 2010, p12). With greater public legitimization and valuation of the services these workers provide, more dignity and support for safer conditions may also be possible. A pilot project, which was begun in recent years and is reportedly making great progress, provides a hopeful example of what could be done to address many of the issues discussed thus far.
Manos Unidas
Manos Unidas is a cooperative of 18 “cart-men” who now collect household solid waste from several barrios in the Managua’s District 5 using horse-drawn carts. Previously to the start of this project, these men would collect debris and garden wastes from the more wealthy barrios for a small fee, then deposit the waste in nearby clandestine dumps. “They had low and irregular incomes, were persecuted by the police and were stigmatized by local communities as sources of contamination” (Campos, p230). Habitar, a local NGO working to implement waste infrastructure projects saw potential in these cart-men, and in 2009 they received funding totaling US$ 214,930 to begin Proyecto Alianza para el Manejo de los Desechos Solidos en el Municipio de Managua. Funding for the project came through the United Nations Development Program’s Public-Private Partnerships for Service Delivery (PPPSD) in partnership with WASTE, Advisors on Urban Environment and Development in Gouda, the Netherlands. In preparation for their new service role, the cart-men were given training through the first year in relevant topics such as law, accounting, management, labor risks, and care of animals.
At the same time, Habitar began a public information campaign in partnership with other grassroots organizations and community leaders in the barrios to increase awareness of appropriate waste handling practices, and to introduce Manos Unidas as a new provider of household collection service (Campos, p233). In 2010, the cart-men received temporary licensing by the city authority to collect solid waste from households in District 5. As the carts get filled, the waste is deposited at a transfer station where municipal trucks can collect and transport it to the landfill.
Initially there were few participants in the community who were willing to trust that the service would be regularly provided, and many who balked at the idea of paying a 3 cordoba fee to dispose of trash they might otherwise dump in the river for free. The role of community leaders was crucial here, as well as the consistently demonstrated quality of the cart-men’s service. Being a market-driven relationship, there was natural concern for service quality from both the cart-men and their customers. Through personal, efficient and precise service, residents of the barrios came to report that they preferred the Manos Unidas service to that of the municipality. Only a few months after beginning collection in 2010, the barrios were noticeably cleaner. This was due in part because local residents supporting the cleanup effort actually mobilized themselves into “environmental brigades” to clear out the storm canals and spontaneous dumps where trash had accumulated. After a year of successful operation, the Managua city management signed a formal agreement allowing Manos Unidas to continue collecting waste on agreed upon routes. Although officially set to end in 2012, the project was still being supported the following year, with signs of similar programs being adopted in Districts 6 and 7 (Campos, p239). With only a small initial investment, through legitimizing and integrating the informal into the formal, the Manos Unidas cooperative were transformed from public nuisance into vital co-producers of a valuable public service. “Illegal dumps were transformed into legal transfer points, illegal squatters into responsible citizens and cart-men into environmental heroes” (Campos, p238).
Integration & Decentralization
In the developed world, the approach to waste management considered most compatible with environmentally sustainable development is called “integrated waste management.” It consists of a hierarchical prioritization of actions that can reduce pollution, maximize recovery of reusable and recyclable materials, and protect human health and the environment. From the most to the least desirable practices, the order is waste prevention, reuse, recycling, composting, incineration, and sanitary landfilling (Medina 2010, p7). The reasons for this order are straightforward – the first order options are those that save the most natural resources and generate the least pollution. Without the reuse and recycling performed by scavengers, the great bulk of Managua’s waste would be sent directly to the last order of most wasteful and polluting options (and La Chureca is just recently transitioning into what qualifies as a “sanitary” landfill). The churequeros who collect and process the city’s waste into reusable and recyclable material thus perform an important environmental function, with tangible benefits for the local ecology and economy.
Projects Manos Unidas show how “integrated waste management” could also mean integrating the work of the informal sector into the formal, and similar hybrid models are indeed catching on as a practical and sustainable approach to the unique challenges of waste management in developing countries. The conventional approach in developed countries, with a centralized and technologically advanced service provider is simply inappropriate and insufficient for a city like Managua. To better respond to the needs of their residents, a decentralized waste management system is necessary. Informal settlements require decentralized solutions that actively involve the community in the decision-making process, that are low-tech and affordable, and that accept the contribution that informal refuse collectors and scavengers can make in solving the difficult and shared problem of solid waste management in the developing world.
Recommendations
Mario Chamorro, coordinator of Dos Generaciones (an influential NGO working with children in La Chureca) said, “Working in garbage recycling is a worthy job anywhere in the world. What makes La Chureca degrading are the unhealthy conditions, the contamination and the risks faced by the people who work here. People lose their dignity here” (Revista Envio, #321). The Manos Unidas project showed how simple it can be to redefine and bring dignity to the work performed by a formerly stigmatize social group. Simply by accepting and training the cart-men to improve and legitimize the work they were already doing, their work lost much of what might have made it degrading. I believe the working conditions faced by the churequeros could likewise be made safer, and their social status more dignified. By organize themselves in micro-enterprises or cooperatives and forming public–private partnerships (PPPs) with the municipality, scavengers and waste collectors can achieve a decent standard of living and improve their working conditions. The result is “grassroots development.”
With better organization and minimal funding for training and safety equipment, the municipal government could have all the labor it needs to effectively collect and process the city’s waste. If the government is unable to provide funding, it can at least cooperate with and support the entrepreneurship of the informal sector. With micro-financing, the necessary equipment to further process recyclables could be made available to the cooperatives, and boost collective income by making value-added materials ready for export and/or sale to local industry. Compost could also form a source of income by providing sales to local farmers. Typically over 50% of the waste generated by developing countries is made up of organic matter. Composting this would reduce the amount of waste currently disposed of as landfill, thus improving efficiency and reducing the amount of land necessary for that purpose. When composting is conducted properly, it also does not generate odors or attract vermin.
Conclusion
Without taxation, the municipal government of Managua may not be able to afford to provide the residents of illegal settlements with all the basic services they would otherwise be entitled to, but refusing them assistance and hoping they will simply go away is obviously not working. Without supporting their efforts to improve their material condition, they will never be well off enough to pay taxes and become legitimate citizens. Without meeting the basic standards of health and human dignity, they will never be capable of full and productive participation in the life of their country. The events of Nicaragua’s history have set in place the structural causes of scavenging - underdevelopment, poverty, unemployment, the lack of a safety net for the poor, and industrial demand for inexpensive raw materials. These are factors that are likely to continue to exist in Nicaragua and many other developing countries. Therefore, a public policy that supports scavenging activities would not only be more humane, but also would make good social, economic, and environmental sense. Areas for further research in this subject would be to assess existing disposal options in other local cities, and citizens willingness to pay for various levels of service; also to compare existing best practice models of waste management and recycling; to assess the feasibility of home separation of organic and recyclable materials; and investigate the possibility of the city promoting the work of artists and entrepreneurs who make their crafts from recycled wastes.
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