The life of a garbage scavenger

Residents of one of Karachi's biggest landfill sites have no water, electricity or opportunity to leave

KARACHI: Though located no more than six kilometres from 4K Chowrangi in New Karachi, the lives of the residents of Umar Goth are poles apart from those of other Karachiites.

Piles and piles of garbage cover Jam Chakro's 50 acres of land. PHOTO: AYESHA MIR/EXPRESS

Far away from the cool breeze synonymous with Karachi, the residents of Umar Goth live amid piles of garbage, breathing noxious smoke day in and day out and treading barefoot on burning mountains of waste.

This is a routine matter for the 1,000 families that live in the area. Umar Goth is a village in Jam Chakro, one of Karachi's two landfill sites, that approximately covers 500 acres of land.

Almost all the residents engage in scavenging and only a select few own grocery shops. PHOTO: AYESHA MIR/EXPRESS

The village has no electricity, water, transport or medical facility. "We have to go to Manghopir if we are ill or in case of any emergency and for that we have to pay the taxi drivers around Rs400," said Ramzan, a resident of the village.



Manghopir is 10.9km away from Umar Goth and the village has no roads. Villagers have saved the taxi drivers' mobile phone numbers saved so that they can call them late at night if there is any emergency.

Animal bones are also separated from the other garbage and sold. PHOTO: AYESHA MIR/EXPRESS

"I was born here, I studied, got married and now have a one-year-old daughter," said Saima, who is the first girl from the village to have completed her matriculation. She now scavenges steel, brass and iron from the mountains of garbage and sells it to make ends meet.

Residents live in makeshift homes made of bamboo sticks and old cloth. PHOTO: AYESHA MIR/EXPRESS

Hiding her face behind a green-coloured veil, Saima holds her young daughter in her arms and walks from the garbage piles to her house. It is constructed of weak bamboo sticks and flimsy cloth curtains.



"We all live here to scavenge the waste dumped here from all over the city," she explained, adding that they earn a maximum of Rs300 a day if they are lucky. There are also days when the families living in Jam Chakro are not so lucky and earn even not a single rupee.

Residents walk through mounds of garbage to look for items they can sell. PHOTO: AYESHA MIR/EXPRESS

The main source of income for the people residing in the village is hunting through the garbage to find items of value and selling them. A few villagers own small grocery shops.

The garbage trucks that come to the area from the city are supposed to dump trash anywhere but residents have to pay the drivers Rs1,500 to dump the waste in front of their makeshift houses so that they can dig through. "We pay them so we can earn more. From a single truck, for which we pay Rs1,500, we can earn up to Rs4,000," explained Ramzan.

Almost 50% of the residents of Umar Goth suffer from asthma or tuberculosis. PHOTO: AYESHA MIR/EXPRESS

Describing how they work in such an environment, he said that when any of the trucks dump the garbage, he and his family members - men, women and children - spread the trash, collect all the paper and set the rest of the garbage on fire for a day. Once the extra items in the waste like plastic and other useless things burn they leave it to cool down for another day.



"Once the garbage is cool enough to step into it we hunt for iron, steel, brass and other metals and spend two days collecting whatever we can," explained Ramzan while separating paper from rocks in a pile of garbage in front of his hut.

Residents separate paper from the rest of the garbage before burning it for a full day. PHOTO: AYESHA MIR/EXPRESS

The villagers not only collect metal but also separate animal bones, which they sell in the city. "After collecting everything we can, we go to the weighing scale outside the village on Surjani Town Link Road and sell whatever we collected per kilogramme," he said, adding that the weighing scale is set to weigh trucks and keep a check on how much garbage is being brought in daily.

On an average, between 250 and 300 trucks come into Jam Chakro daily, which are distributed among the five small villages located nearby.

Sifting through the garbage can be tedious work. PHOTO: AYESHA MIR/EXPRESS

Due to excessive smoke from burning garbage, smell of the waste and unhygienic conditions, nearly 50% of the residents who work and live in the area suffer from tuberculosis or asthma.

"What else should I do other than working here," asked a resident who was working to sift through the garbage and collect the metals in a basket.

Residents go through the smoldering ashes to retrieve valuable items such as metals. PHOTO: AYESHA MIR/EXPRESS

"This is where I earn bread and butter for my family." He said he was afraid of moving to the city because if he moves out, the feudal lord in whose possession the land is will make it difficult for his family to live in the village.