The entire world has faced a nightmare, COVID-19, since January 2020. As of April 18, 2020, there are over 2.6 mln. confirmed cases with the number of deaths peaking to over one hundred eighty-thousand.
In Ethiopia, the first case was confirmed on March 13, 2020, and there are 116 confirmed cases to date, with three deaths. Understanding the rapid spread of the disease, personal and environmental risk factors to the infection and taking timely measures to safeguard the lives of the society are essential. It is true in fact, we are learning more about the virus as it keeps killing us all. As our daily activities and routines are disrupted, challenged, canceled, replaced, extended, etc by the ultimate power of COVID-19, I would like to reflect my opinion about one of our heroes and heroines in the solid waste collection, sanitation workers. I felt this visibly in-visible task deserves attention like other front line essential workers in the battle against the current life-threatening situation.
In most parts of Addis Ababa, solid waste collection for residential areas is provided by sanitation workers once or twice a week even though the service lacks regularity. Against many odds in the system, the operational system has been observed to improve overtime in the past few years especially in the waste collection system. The daily tasks of sanitation workers are mainly performed with inadequate personal protective equipment [PPE] which exposes them to serious health and occupational hazards. At this scary time, they keep on providing one of the essential services to the community which is required at all times and places. What could be done to save sanitation workers by minimizing their exposure to the virus?
Solid waste management service is one of the essential services every urbanite requires. Despite the fact that not everyone abides by a proper solid waste handling guidelines provided by the cities. This loop is also a reality for Addis Ababa residents and very few attempts to care for their handling and think for others who will be responsible to take and dispose of their waste. These gaps include lack of segregation such as mixing up dry and wet waste, combining household hazardous waste with other waste streams, disposal of waste in undesignated areas and many other unwanted practices.
In most scenarios, sanitation workers are responsible to fill these gaps and segregate
the recyclable waste from the other mixed waste without PPE and this puts them in a high-risk position for acquiring infection with COVID-19. This kind of habit has been there since the inception of the service with a baby step progress. Sanitation workers are in the double burden of the pandemic making them especially vulnerable groups for consideration in the battle against COVID-19.
The way of collecting solid waste from each household is another point to be critically looked into. In most cases, it is conducted by providing sacks [reused several times and not clean] for storage of waste to each household. This is the conventional way of solid waste collection and some residents even fight with sanitation workers to get good and relatively newer ones. However, as most of them are reused several times they are mostly very old and thorn apart and even look like waste themselves. These collection sacks are provided by sanitation workers and are being accepted by Addis Ababa residents even at the time of the pandemic, twice a week. This practice could serve as a potential vehicle for transmission of coronavirus between sanitation workers and the community they serve and could be propagated further.
Some studies indicate that the virus can stay on surfaces of different materials such as metals, plastics, cardboards and others from a few hours up to 9 days depending on several environmental factors including but not limited to temperature, humidity, nature of the surface, etc.
However, disinfecting contaminated surfaces with 70% alcohol content solutions, sanitizers and alcohol-based wipers could shorten the lifespan of the virus into a few minutes. Like any other surfaces, the sacks for solid waste collection could be contaminated [including by COVID-19 virus] as it is touched by many people. Moreover, medical and hazardous wastes from households are mixed and coming with other waste streams that could be infectious to sanitation workers and the community. So, will you continue to wide open your doors and accept these sacks from sanitation workers anymore or will you replace it by some cleaner alternatives such as disposable plastic bags?
Ed.’s note: The author is pursuing her Ph.D. studies in African Area Studies at Kyoto University. Further, she earned an MA from Kyoto University and a BA in Social Anthropology from Addis Ababa University.
The Ethiopian Herald April 24/2020
BY HAREGEWOIN MEKONNEN
