2006年VOA标准英语-Senegalese Scavengers Get Busy Recycling Mounti

By Naomi Schwarz
Dakar
06 December 2006

 
Ndiaye Diop lifts her daughter over trash in Pikine, 17 Oct 2006
In the developing world's fast-growing cities, formal systems for managing garbage are sometimes insufficient¹. In Senegal's capital, Dakar, trash piles up across the city, as an out-dated dump continues to operate years past its closure date. Naomi Schwarz reports from the dump, where a well-organized network of scavengers make their living, and, in the process, recycle everything they find.

Pape Ndiaye is one of hundreds of Senegalese men and women who scavenge the city dump. Mbeubeuss, Dakar's 40-year-old, six-square-kilometer dump, is called "the mountain" by its neighbors. In fact, it is more of a mountain range, with household and industrial waste piled in peaks and valleys.

Ndiaye leads the way through the heaps of trash in his domain³. There are aluminum⁴ cans, glass and plastic bottles. A little further on, Ndiaye keeps bits of iron, packaging from powdered laundry detergent⁵, and kilos-worth of polyester hair weave in various shades of brown.

 
A scavenger² at Dakar's dump collects trash to sell
Everything has its place, organized by material, and sometimes by brand. And every bit of this waste will be resold to someone, either in its raw form or else repaired and re-purposed as something else.

A tailor sits in a small shed, sewing strips of plastic packaging into vast sheets. They will become waterproof⁶ roofs. In another small shack⁷, a woman makes soap. She collects industrial soap remnants and boils them together into large blocks that she will cut into bars.

Ndiaye has worked at the dump since it opened, when he was 20 years old. "I'm making money," he says. With the money he earns from scavenging, he supports his two wives and 12 children. He lives in Malika, the town where the dump is situated⁸

The cool air blowing through the dump does not carry the stench of rotting garbage. The reason for this lies in the smellier, smoky valleys where the refuse that cannot be sold is burning. Later, another scavenger will come through with a shovel⁹, gathering¹⁰ the rich composting soil to sell to flower growers. 

"In third world countries, our landfills, they are not sanitary¹¹ landfills," said Oumar Cissé, who directs the Mbeubeuss Project at the Dakar-based African Institute for Urban Management.

"We need more, in order, to get a landfill less damaging to the environment and less damaging to the community," he added.

When Mbeubeuss was originally built, the area was uninhabited. But, as Dakar grew, the space around the landfill filled with neighborhoods.

There are also as many as 150 scavengers who live on the landfill, itself. Salimata Seck Wone works with Oumar Cissé at the African Institute for Urban Management.

She says the living conditions in and around the dump are very poor. She says there is no electricity; most people get their drinking water from unsanitary wells; and, there are no schools. 

For years, Senegal has planned to replace Mbeubeuss with a modern, environmentally friendly landfill. They had a contract with AMA, an Italian solid waste management company, to build a network of landfills around the country. Many of these sites are close to completion and could be operational within a few months.

But construction has been frozen. AMA had also been tasked with organizing garbage collection across all of Dakar. However, Senegal Environment spokesman Ibrahima Fall Junior says the firm was not up to the task.

Fall says the firm did not have enough vehicles to manage collection and failed to pay 
Uncollected trash in Dakar often gets burned
their local subcontractors.

AMA-International refuses to comment on the matter. The firm says negotiations¹² with the Senegalese government are ongoing¹³.

In the meantime, the ministry¹⁴ of the environment has been cobbling together interim¹⁵ solutions, without AMA.

But Dakar resident Islmaillah Ndiaye says piles of trash across the city show collection is still insufficient.  He says he never knows when the collection trucks are coming, if they come, at all.

When the state fails to collect, residents resort to other means to cart the trash away from their homes. He says the neighborhood takes up a collection to hire a man with a horse cart to take the trash away.

This trash rarely makes it to Mbeubeuss. It usually is dumped in open spaces across the city.

1 insufficient   

adj.(for，of)不足的，不够的

参考例句：

• There was insufficient evidence to convict him.没有足够证据给他定罪。
• In their day scientific knowledge was insufficient to settle the matter.在他们的时代，科学知识还不能足以解决这些问题。

2 scavenger   

n.以腐尸为食的动物，清扫工

参考例句：

• He's just fit for a job as scavenger.他只配当个清道夫。
• He is not a scavenger nor just a moving appetite as some sharks are.它不是食腐动物，也不像有些鲨鱼那样，只知道游来游去满足食欲。

3 domain   

n.(活动等)领域，范围；领地，势力范围

参考例句：

• This information should be in the public domain.这一消息应该为公众所知。
• This question comes into the domain of philosophy.这一问题属于哲学范畴。

4 aluminum   

n.(aluminium)铝

参考例句：

• The aluminum sheets cannot be too much thicker than 0.04 inches.铝板厚度不能超过0.04英寸。
• During the launch phase,it would ride in a protective aluminum shell.在发射阶段，它盛在一只保护的铝壳里。

5 detergent   

n.洗涤剂；adj.有洗净力的

参考例句：

• He recommended a new detergent to me.他向我推荐一种新的洗涤剂。
• This detergent can remove stubborn stains.这种去污剂能去除难洗的污渍。

6 waterproof   

n.防水材料；adj.防水的；v.使...能防水

参考例句：

• My mother bought me a waterproof watch.我妈妈给我买了一块防水手表。
• All the electronics are housed in a waterproof box.所有电子设备都储放在一个防水盒中。

7 shack   

adj.简陋的小屋，窝棚

参考例句：

• He had to sit down five times before he reached his shack.在走到他的茅棚以前，他不得不坐在地上歇了五次。
• The boys made a shack out of the old boards in the backyard.男孩们在后院用旧木板盖起一间小木屋。

8 situated   

adj.坐落在...的，处于某种境地的

参考例句：

• The village is situated at the margin of a forest.村子位于森林的边缘。
• She is awkwardly situated.她的处境困难。

9 shovel   

n.铁锨，铲子，一铲之量；v.铲，铲出

参考例句：

• He was working with a pick and shovel.他在用镐和铲干活。
• He seized a shovel and set to.他拿起一把铲就干上了。

10 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

11 sanitary   

adj.卫生方面的，卫生的，清洁的，卫生的

参考例句：

• It's not sanitary to let flies come near food.让苍蝇接近食物是不卫生的。
• The sanitary conditions in this restaurant are abominable.这家饭馆的卫生状况糟透了。

12 negotiations   

协商( negotiation的名词复数 )； 谈判； 完成（难事）； 通过

参考例句：

• negotiations for a durable peace 为持久和平而进行的谈判
• Negotiations have failed to establish any middle ground. 谈判未能达成任何妥协。

13 ongoing   

adj.进行中的，前进的

参考例句：

• The problem is ongoing.这个问题尚未解决。
• The issues raised in the report relate directly to Age Concern's ongoing work in this area.报告中提出的问题与“关心老人”组织在这方面正在做的工作有直接的关系。

14 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。

15 interim   

adj.暂时的，临时的；n.间歇，过渡期间

参考例句：

• The government is taking interim measures to help those in immediate need.政府正在采取临时措施帮助那些有立即需要的人。
• It may turn out to be an interim technology.这可能只是个过渡技术。