The air at Waterloo dumpsite (locally known as Bomeh), is thick with the stench of rotting refuse, yet for a single mother selling plantains and young men shoveling trash, it is the only place they can earn a living.
Despite a 2021 government promise to relocate the hazardous site and provide modern facilities, the reality on the ground remains a toxic nightmare. During a recent on-the-ground investigation, I spoke with waste workers, residents and petty traders who are bearing the brunt of the Western Area Rural District Council’s (WARDC) inaction, painting a grim picture of a community left to survive amidst a mountain of garbage waiting to collapse on them.
Ibrahim Sesay, a young male worker at the dumpsite, spends his days shoveling rotting refuse, tasked with keeping the garbage from spilling onto the busy Freetown-Waterloo Highway. Alongside his colleague Alusine Turay and others, Ibrahim Sesay was recruited by WARDC to manage the site.
“Working at the dumpsite has been my only source of livelihood,” Ibrahim Sesay told me during our interview at the site, noting that the job subjects him to the scorn of relatives and friends who mock him for his hazardous occupation.
A photo of two young male workers shovels rotting refuse at the Waterloo dumpsite without any protective equipment.
While Ibrahim Sesay claimed that WARDC provided the workers with protective gear, the reality I witnessed contradicted his narration: not a single worker at the site was wearing any protective equipment. This lack of basic personal protective equipment (PPE) drastically increases their risk of chronic respiratory diseases, skin infections and gastrointestinal illnesses. According to research, air pollution alone accounts for 155 deaths/100,000 people in Sub-Saharan Africa, with Sierra Leone continuing to struggle with air quality due to pollution, particularly from the waste industry.
The council’s narrative around organized waste collection rings equally hollow for the residents the system is meant to serve. Rugiatu Kamara, a primary school teacher living in the Deep Eye Water community within the WARDC jurisdiction, flatly denied the existence of any formal waste collection in her neighborhood.
“I have lived here for almost five years and I have never seen any formal waste management collector at my doorstep or my neighbors’ either,” Rugiatu Kamara lamented when I interviewed her.
Her experience is mirrored by Mariama Jalloh, a resident of Cole Street in Waterloo 555, who told me that her community lacks both a nearby designated dumpsite and any access to waste collection services. Consequently, residents are forced into street dumping, clogging local waterways with household waste. This inefficient and poor waste management system is a major public health concern in the country. The informal disposal method is a primary driver of the region’s environmental crises; in Sierra Leone, clogged drains caused by indiscriminate dumping led to severe flooding and create stagnant breeding grounds for mosquitoes, directly fueling outbreaks of malaria, cholera and typhoid.
The toxic environment of Bomeh does not just affect the waste workers; it has also become the unwilling backdrop for local commerce. Amina, a plantain seller and a single mother of three, has been setting up her makeshift stall by the dumpsite for years, watching the conditions deteriorate daily.
“Each day, rain or sun, I’m here to find my daily bread for my children,” Amina told me, explaining that she has no alternative source of income or any other viable location to sell her goods.
A photo of Amina alongside her plantains for sale beside the festering garbage mountain at Waterloo Bomeh
Like the married couple who are also petty traders I spoke to nearby, Amina is forced to endure the overwhelming stench and the looming threat of disease just to put food on the table. Selling food in such close proximity to a massive, unmanaged dumpsite poses a critical public health risk. The World Health Organization warns that food prepared or sold near waste disposal sites is highly vulnerable to contamination from harmful bacteria, heavy metals and chemical pollutants carried by flies, rodents and contaminated water sources, significantly increasing the risk of foodborne diseases like cholera and dysentery.
Despite those unthinkable public health risks, these traders have no choice but to endure the conditions, pleading with WARDC to relocate the dumpsite to a secure, managed facility as they were promised years ago.
In March 2021, Sierra Leone’s Minister of Lands, Housing, and Country Planning publicly announced that 200 acres of state land had been allocated to WARDC to relocate the dumpsite and transform the current area into a modern, multi-purpose market. Yet, years later, the garbage mountain remains.
When I physically went to the Western Area Rural District Council (WARDC) offices to interview officials about their concrete plans for the Waterloo dumpsite, there was nobody available to talk to, leaving the workers, residents and traders of Waterloo to continue breathing the stench of broken promises.
A photo of the sprawling Waterloo Bomeh dumpsite stretches along the Freetown-Waterloo Highway.
An additional photo of the dumpsite
Photos credit: Kemoh Saidu Sesay
