Trash

So here’s a question that many Americans don’t ever pause to consider…what would you do if there were no trash cans in your house? Okay, now what if there wasn’t a trash truck that came to your house every week or a functioning sanitary landfill? Well, those questions are a daily dilemma for many Mauritanians, Peace Corps volunteers included.

Some of the first things you notice when you arrive in a third world country are the smells, the animals wandering around, and the trash everywhere. Then, when you first find that you need to get rid of a food wrapper, a used water bottle, or some other disposable item, you realize that there are no trash cans to be found anywhere. A fully functioning trash disposal system is something we Americans completely take for granted, but in Mauritania, it is something we contemplate daily.

Trash and sewage are huge problems in many third world areas that haven’t developed comprehensive systems to deal with their removal. As city populations increase, so do problems with waste. Small outbreaks of disease have the potential to become huge epidemics when there is no safe system to remove infectious material.

Rosso, the city in southern Mauritania where Mike and I lived during our pre-service training, has one of the worst problems with trash and sewage in the country. However, according to many previous volunteers, Rosso is much better now than it used to be, due in part to a motivated mayor and funding he has directed toward the problem.

Now that we are living in Nouadhibou and are no lon ger living with a host family, we are able to buy trash cans to keep around our apartment. It is somewhat of a relief to me that I no longer have to carry around my trash in my pocket until I find an acceptable place to discard it. However, even in Nouadhibou, it is frequently a futile effort. After we put our trash in bags and dutifully place it at the appropriate collection point, it is left to the mercy of the wandering animals (usually goats and/or children). They tear open the bags and eat whatever they can salvage before anyone comes by to collect it. So it is no surprise when I arrive back home later in the day and see a piece of trash from our house blowing by my feet.