Legacy Of Liberia's Civil War: Garbage, Shrapnel, Carcasses

by Abdullah Dukuly

(IPS) MONROVIA -- Liberia's capital has endured civil war and an influx of displaced people from surrounding areas. But, can it survive an erratic sewerage system -- and the mounting tide of garbage produced by residents?

"This is terrible," exclaims a peacekeeping soldier who has been stationed near one of the disease-breeding garbage sites that dot the center of Monrovia.

"It seems to me that there is a spirit of 'I don't care' among the local population, with little or no sense of pride and values. Why can't they think about the saying, 'Cleanliness is next to godliness?'"

A great many residents of Monrovia probably do consider this but feel powerless to do anything about the growing heaps of refuse in areas like Duala, Logan Town, Point Four, New Krutown and Camp John Road.

Fourteen years of war have brought about a near-terminal decline of public services such as water provision and sanitation. As a result, the streets are littered with household waste, shrapnel, carcasses, rubble and scrap that are an eyesore at best -- at worst, a dangerous pollutant of underground water sources.

Many streets in Monrovia, including Broad Street, the city's busiest, are also littered with human waste from burst pipes. Pedestrians are forced to hold their noses as they race past the sites.

Municipal authorities acknowledge that the situation has reached crisis proportions in certain districts.

According to Monrovia's Mayor, Ophelia Hoff Saytumah, nearly 3 million pounds of garbage are produced in the city and its environs every day. "With our diminished capacity, we are faced with a very serious sanitation problem in and around Monrovia," she says.

But Liberia's cash-strapped transitional government, which is in frequent dispute with civil servants over salary arrears, is unlikely to provide local authorities with the resources needed to clean up Monrovia.

The government took control of Liberia in Aug. 2003 after two rebel insurgencies and Western pressure forced President Charles Taylor into exile, in Nigeria. A United Nations peace-keeping force has been deployed in the country to disarm former combatants.

Civil war led to a massive displacement of Liberians, many of whom fled rural areas in search of refuge in over-crowded Monrovia. During the past decade, the city's population has swelled from its pre-war figure of 500,000 to about 1.5 million.

"This has placed further strains on the limited water and sanitation services in the city, creating a high risk of outbreaks and rapid spread of waterborne diseases," Jerry Varpillah, Information Officer at the state-owned Liberia Water and Sewer Corporation told IPS.

Certain health workers claim to have seen an increase in malaria and diarrhea cases of between 37 and 40 percent.

"Mosquitoes in the swampy areas of Monrovia are so many that no resident can sleep well without mosquito nets, spray or coils. I believe the huge pile of waste and the inability of many residents to clean their environment, compounded by the rains, is responsible for the overwhelming of these communities by mosquitoes," said a doctor.

The onset of the rainy season in the city is bound to worsen matters, agrees Varpillah, who believes the overstretched sewerage and drainage systems have not seen any major repairs for more than a decade -- and are mostly clogged.

This has led to floods in low-lying areas of the city, even after a slight rainfall. Most residents of the western suburbs have been forced to abandon their homes at one time or another when the rains set in. Unfortunately, it's not a case of simply mopping up excess water when they return.

"These floodwaters bring with them into residential homes faeces and other waste carelessly disposed of by residents of homes without toilet facilities," says Alphonso Kesselly, a researcher who deals with waste disposal.

The Liberia Water and Sewer Corporation estimates that about five million dollars are needed to repair Monrovia's drains and sewers. But, some residents have also pointed a finger of blame at landlords.

"The landlords refuse to renovate their properties and provide toilet facilities. Where then do you expect us to defecate?" asks tenant Justin Kulu. "We are just renting in Monrovia and nothing belongs to us, so we are not responsible."

But his friend, Edward Nardoh, disagrees. "The landlord may own the house but he does not own our health. So we have to clean up our environment to avoid diseases," he says.

Adds Margaret Boikai, a mother of four: "We have to stop the children from making toilet wherever they want."

Another problem which has give rise to the frequent clogging of drains is the illegal tapping of sewer lines by residents of the city.

"The residents sometimes connect the wrong pipes to the system, thus causing them to frequently burst and spill their unsightly, obnoxious contents in communities," Varpillah says.

In addition, the illegal construction of houses over sewer lines has prevented the Liberia Water and Sewer Corporation from gaining access to certain pipes. No that it matters much at the moment...The only truck that was equipped with machinery to unblock pipes has given up the ghost.

Lack of electrical power to pump water and waste has also made it difficult to have a functional drainage system. "At the moment, water moves through the drainage system by direct gravity," says Varpillah.

Saytumah has called on government ministries and agencies, and non-governmental organizations, to provide trucks, bulldozers, wheelbarrows and shovels to clear away the choking piles of garbage in Monrovia. For the residents of this beleaguered city, no such assistance can come a moment too soon.