Donkeys Fill the Gap as Bamako Struggles to Manage Waste
In Mali’s capital, Bamako, a unique solution has emerged to tackle the city’s overwhelming waste problem. Donkeys, once a common mode of transportation, are now being used to collect garbage, filling the gap left by the city’s absent waste management services.
Yacouba Diallo, a resident of Bamako, uses two donkeys, Keita and Kanté, to pull his cart around the city, collecting trash from households and earning up to $165 a month. The donkey carts are a more affordable transport method than motorized vehicles, allowing Diallo to keep his costs low and provide a valuable service to the community.
“I want to do this work with a truck, but I don’t have the means to buy one, so I use the donkeys and the cart,” Diallo says. Like other garbage collectors, he takes his haul to dumps sites like the one at Badalabougou, where mountains of waste tower above.
The donkey cart network operates entirely outside of the state’s control, with managers recording the names of drivers and carts arriving at the dumps and managing the money at the end of the month. The system has been in place for years, with locals acknowledging the importance of the donkeys in keeping the city’s streets clean.
However, experts say that better infrastructure is needed to cope with the city’s mounting piles of refuse. Bamako has more than doubled its population in recent years, putting a strain on the city’s waste management services. State waste management services are completely absent, leaving residents to fend for themselves.
“The institutions that must intervene and deal with the issue of waste management are not fully playing their role. For example, the state,” says waste management specialist and former city employee, Bamadou Sidibé. “The state must build the infrastructure, and among this infrastructure, there is the construction of landfills that must receive all the waste from the city of Bamako.”
Sidibé adds that Bamako does not have operational landfills that meet the accepted standards, making it difficult to manage the city’s waste effectively. Local authorities acknowledge the waste problem in the city, but blame residents for not caring about their environment or health.
As the city’s waste continues to grow, the donkeys will likely remain a vital part of Bamako’s waste management system. For now, they provide a unique solution to a pressing problem, but experts hope that a more permanent solution will be found soon to address the city’s waste crisis.