Session 5.3: Down in the Dumps

Written by Sarah Chong

Photographs by Sarah Chong

     As Iloilo city continues to develop into a  beautiful city, urban poor communities are caught in the middle of things-often, they are displaced and relocated by the urban planning efforts of the local authorities. With the assistance of Kadamay, our group of 10 were able to take a walk through the urban poor area of the dumpsite and slums in Calajunan, Mandurriao and Lapuz Norte, Lapuz respectively.

      It takes a short climb up a hill to reach the Calajunan dumpsite, where all the rubbish collected from the city is brought. Small huts can be seen scattered among the mountains of rubbish around the dumpsite. We were introduced to four workers at the site, who talked to us frankly about their lives.

     Men, women and children are seen at this dumpsite. There are approximately 200 workers working here, with families of around 5 to 7 members. Frequently, husbands and wives work together here and sometimes, their children will come along to help out.

Scavengers working hard looking for recyclable materials.

      Before the Calajunan dumpsite was built, the land used to be a rice field - roughly 24 hectares wide. The local authorities then made plans to convert it into a dumpsite. Ever since, many of these farmers have changed their occupations to scavenging. The dumpsite opens at 5 am and closes at 8 pm. Working hours for these scavengers are not fixed, but start roughly at 6am and ends at 3pm. On good days, the scavengers can go on working until 7 pm or until the place closes.

    The job scope of scavengers is to find goods such as plastic bottles, cans, scraps, and so on for recycling. When the rubbish comes in from the garbage trucks, the scavengers will search for materials using a hook. This is so that they will not hurt their hands if there is glass or dangerous objects inside the bag of rubbish. They usually make these hooks themselves. If they were to buy them, they would cost about PHP 100 each. Materials such as plastic bottles and cans are sold for PHP 12 and PHP 9 per kilogram respectively. One can earn on average PHP 200 per day. However, during the typhoon season, Iloilo city experiences regular, heavy rains and this affects the scavengers’ profits. Cardboard is usually collected to be sold, however if it is wet, this cannot be done.

A hook made by scavengers to cut through the bags.

     Profits earned go solely to the scavenger. This means the more you find, the more profit you earn. According to the scavengers, they do not fight with each other to obtain more rubbish bags to search for more materials. The dumpsite is like a community now. They work, eat and rest together in the little bamboo huts.

Little huts where scavengers eat and rest together with their friends and family.

    Working in a dumpsite, the scavengers have seen plenty of different types of rubbish, from plastic and glass materials to dead fetuses and human body parts. The scavengers find babies who are one to two days old; they believe these are unwanted babies. When they find them, they send them to the clinic nearby. Surprisingly, it appears that some of the decomposed bodies found are from the hospitals.

     Some time ago, the dumpsite implemented a closing hour of 8 pm- it used to be open 24 hours a day. This was because female workers were sometimes raped when they stayed overnight at the dumpsite. Unfortunately, there have also been cases of small children sleeping in the dumpsite and getting run over by the garbage trucks that come to the site early in the morning when it's still too dark to see well.

    The Dinagyang festival is the biggest festival in Iloilo City. Though the community here does not participate or go to the city to enjoy the festival, they say that it brings them happiness on the television. The people here do think of their future, and they do have hopes and dreams- mainly for their children. They hope that their children will graduate from college, and lead a better life than them. Though the people here live in abject poverty, they still smile and appear content with life.

All smiles from scavengers at Calajunan dumpsite

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Sarah is an Arts student majoring in Communications. At 20, she knows that it really is all about giving- rather than receiving.