Sewage bags pose health threat to clueless buyers

Women wash carry bags in Ngong' River. The carry bags are collected from dumpsites and rewashed in the filthy river, dried, ironed and re-packaged for sale to markets where traders use them to pack groceries for customers. [Denish Ochieng, Standard]

Every garbage site in Mukuru kwa Reuben slum has its uses. So too, do the filthy streams of raw sewer slicing through the makeshift shacks in this sprawling informal settlement, which houses armies of Nairobi city’s labour force. 

Six years ago, a sizeable number of women were earning their keep retailing polythene bags, which ended up clogging up the city’s waterways and garbage dumps. Then government banned their usage and for some months there was panic. But not anymore.