Waste pickers fear for future at Senegalese mega dump

About 2,000 pickers ignore the stench and the fumes and make money by scavenging for plastic, iron and aluminium among the rubbish.Mouhamadou Wade, a sinewy 50-year-old who has worked on the site for 30 years, explains what makes a good picker:"You have to be a hard man: Tough, courageous and determined".

Pape Ndiaye, the spokesman of the pickers association, says it has become harder to earn a good living because of fierce competition and stagnant wholesale prices.AFP | JOHN WESSELS "It's the middleman that hurts us," says the 66-year-old, reclining in a makeshift hut surrounded by plastic bottles.- Plastic fumes -

For Abdou Dieng, who runs Mbeubeuss for Senegal's waste-management agency UCG, fires and smoke are the main concern. He becomes agitated when he sees smoke rising from a platform that was recently sealed with gravel and sand -- the result of a fire set by a picker to flush out valuables."Once I get my hands on him I'll cause him a lot of problems," vows Dieng, surveying the steaming mound."The people were revolting" because of the plastic fumes wafting over city neighbourhoods, he says.Maguette Diop, from the NGO Wiego, says Dieng has improved the landfill.

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