Garbage piles up in Guinea's capital after dump closure

Along the Guinean capital Conakry's two main traffic arteries, mountains of trash bags line the road and encroach on pavements with blackish, foul-smelling liquid oozing out and flowing towards the middle of the street.

The stench is powerfully acrid, making the air nearly unbreathable as swarms of flies buzz above the piles.

The illegal dumping, which has arisen following the closure of a massive landfill, poses a threat to health, potentially fostering the outbreak of diseases such as cholera.

The situation began after 36 people died in late August when heavy rains triggered a trash landslide at the dump in Conakry's Dar-es-Salam neighbourhood, sweeping away nearby makeshift homes.

Following the catastrophe, the west African country's authorities decided to shut the site permanently.

Since then, refuse has been piling up in front of homes, under bridges and elsewhere in the capital in an unfolding public health crisis.

"We can't live like this, surrounded by trash. The smell is unbearable and there are worms, it could even lead to disease," Conakry resident Mariam Bayo told AFP.

"Before, the sanitation workers used to come twice a week" to collect waste, "but now they can go for three weeks" without showing up, Bayo said, gesturing towards a pile of garbage she was preparing to burn.

The same sense of helplessness is shared by a large portion of the population, which is forced to dump trash wherever there is space.

"Last time my trash bin was so full that I had to put (rubbish) in the boot of my car and dump it by the side of the road on my way to work," a Conakry suburb resident who requested anonymity told AFP.

Nowhere to turn

For the past few years, the Baritode site in the suburb of Coyah was meant to be the main dump for the roughly 3,000 tonnes of waste produced daily in the capital.

However its remote location and heavy traffic congestion have made its full-scale use nearly impossible.

"When a truck leaves here (Conakry) at 8:00 am, it heads to Baritode 125 kilometres (78 miles) from Conakry. By the time it gets back, it's often 5:00 or 6:00 pm," said Oumar Pathe Bah, who runs a small waste-collection business.

Private rubbish collectors now spend so much time travelling to Baritode that they cannot complete their rounds and are seeing their revenue collapse.

"I used to have over a thousand clients, today I doubt I have even 500 left. Many cancelled because we simply cannot work," said Bah, who is struggling to cover his financial obligations.

Siriman Conde of BCEIP Environnement, a company involved in waste management, said collectors "don't know where to take all the waste that cannot be recovered or recycled".

"Our primary challenge is securing access to a modern, controlled landfill," he said.

On Monday, Guinean authorities began rehabilitation work at the Dar-es-Salam landfill. Once the 7.2 million tonnes of garbage are stabilised and decontaminated, the site will be transformed into a park.

To replace the site, a new waste disposal facility is under construction at Baritode.

In the meantime, residents of Conakry and its suburbs will continue to endure the garbage crisis and associated health risks.