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SMH/Age: Dili's scavengers share in spoils of war
Sydney Morning Herald and The Age Tuesday, November 30, 1999 Dili's scavengers share in spoils of war By MARK DODD, Herald Correspondent in Dili ''Can you help me? I would like a drink of water, please. I'm thirsty.'' It's hot work foraging for discarded scraps and selling cigarettes at Dili's garbage dump. Standing amid the heat, flies and filth of the tip, holding a battered umbrella for shade in one hand and clutching a carton of clove cigarettes in the other, 21-year-old Ranti Soares said she had been working for a month as a forager and had so far earned about 5,000 rupiah ($1.10). Most of her miserly income was from sorting through scraps discarded by the United Nations peacekeeping mission's daily waste dumping, she said. Ms Soares is not alone. More than 100 school-age children and several adults work at the tip, ignoring the health dangers while foraging for scraps for themselves and vegetable refuse for domestic animals. The dump is a two-hectare site five kilometres west of Dili. It existed before the arrival of a 7,000-strong peacekeeping force to East Timor but now has a steady shuttle of trucks loaded with refuse. Scraps from the kitchens and plates of UN personnel now form part of the staple diet for scores of malnourished dump urchins and adults living within sight of a massive UN humanitarian operation designed to aid them. Many say they are unable to find the food distribution points established by UN and other charity groups who have flocked to Dili in the wake of the post-referendum militia violence. A 10-wheel Australian Army tip truck pulls up and, before it has finished reversing to dump its load, a swarm of children gather around the rear ignoring the danger as the huge tray is hoisted. Macelino, 25, tries to explain why he was forced to forage for a living. ''There are people who have education. They don't have to come. Others have to look for work and others have to look for food. ''I don't know the organisations which give rice so I come here to look for vegetables. Other scraps I give to my animals,'' he said. His friend Bagame, 21, chips in: ''I've also come to look for good food to eat. If it's no good I give it to the animals. I'm not getting enough food, that's why I'm here.'' Bagame wore a grease-streaked green and white sports shirt, ragged, ill-fitting trousers and socks for footwear. Two Tasmanian-based environmental engineers in Dili told the Herald that although the army has done a good job maintaining the tip it now requires professional waste management because the increasing amount of garbage being dumped there includes sewage, toxic waste, fuel oil, and potentially deadly medical refuse. ''Short-term it's a very serious health hazard for local people,''said one engineer, who asked to remain anonymous. ''Long-term, you are looking at a severe environmental problem which could be controlled now. The site is only 50 metres from the sea and sits on sandy soil,'' Of more serious concern are several hundred drums of discarded waste oil dumped by Indonesians. Hundreds of litres of oil have already soaked into the ground, posing a potential contamination threat to ground water, the engineers warned. Back to November Menu Note: For those who would like to fax "the powers that be" - CallCenter V3.5.8, is a Native 32-bit Voice Telephony software application integrated with fax and data communications... and it's free of charge! Download from http://www.v3inc.com/ |