Why Nairobi residents should care where their waste ends up

After the long festive holiday full of extravagances, there are two things bound to increase in Nairobi county - the amount of waste produced and ‘blame game’ among the three main stakeholders - the county residents, county government, and private contractors - on the poor state of waste management in the county

In Nairobi, all three stakeholders are to blame for the county’s garbage woes. The county government for not putting in proper mechanisms for waste collection and disposal.


Various offices in the county for running parallel waste management programs which do not complement each other and the private contractors for selectively offering waste management services in certain parts of Nairobi. Of the three stakeholders, the county residents take the largest share of the blame.

 First for tightly embracing the consumerist culture which allows us to produce 2000 tons of waste per day. It’s not difficult to understand why we produce this much waste when at the supermarket we want each packet of milk to be individually packed in its own `Jwala’.

Secondly, for not practicing waste separation to allow reuse and recycling of certain waste streams and lastly for not caring where it goes so long as it is out of sight.

Technically, Nairobi residents know that all the waste ends up in Dandora dump site or other `daughter´ dump sites within the county. What residents don’t know or choose to have selective amnesia over is that dump sites in the city are not engineered to receive waste in a safe manner to avoid ground & surface water and soil pollution.

 Surveys and researches done in Nairobi show that the residents, the county government, and other environmental organizations have for a long time been concerned with the physical waste at the dumpsite.


However, the greatest worry should be the toxic water called landfill leachate lurking below the waste. Landfill leachate is produced when rainfall percolates through the waste leaching out all the pollutants from the food, medicines, plastics, paints, battery cells and other waste disposed at the dumpsites.

As is a common sight, some of the leachates from e.g Dandora dumpsite drains into Nairobi river. Downstream from the dumpsite, the polluted water is known to irrigate vegetable gardens whose produce find their way into residents plates. As such, the waste actually never goes away!

The largest fraction of this landfill leachate trickles down; polluting groundwater beneath the dumpsite. Moreover, given the dynamic nature of water, landfill leachate travels away from the dumpsite polluting vast groundwater aquifers.

Researches done in developed countries such as Denmark, USA and Croatia shows that compounds of ecological and environmental concern (read toxic /carcinogenic/estrogenic) such as fire retardants (commonly found in mattresses, furniture), pesticides, medicines, phthalates etc. are present in significant concentrations in ground water contaminated with landfill leachate.

As already mentioned, Dandora dumpsite is not a sanitary landfill hence the probability that leachate produced since 1970’s has been polluting our groundwater is very high. What is worrying about Nairobi’s case is that ground water is a significant source of drinking water hence our exposure to a myriad of compounds that initially we wanted out of our sight.

Even more worrying, is that monitoring the extent of groundwater pollution; as a result of leachate contamination is poor or entirely non-existent. A comprehensive program by the county government in conjunction with relevant ministries is required to monitor the leachate plume from Dandora dumpsite and advice the residents accordingly.

Long after Dandora dumpsite stops receiving waste, leachate production will continue for 30 - 50 years. In the event that the area is remediated as the county government is planning, the leachate must be pumped out of the dumpsite and treated before discharge. But then again Kenya neither has a directive nor environmental standards which regulate the disposal of leachate from dumpsites.

In the end, the waste we Nairobi residents want out of our sight doesn’t entirely go away but comes back to pollute our water, food hence affecting our health and environment. If we want to stop this vicious cycle, it would pay to consciously generate less waste and mind where our waste goes.

 Additionally, we could put to task our county government to close Dandora dumpsite for good and build a properly functioning sanitary landfill. Finally, Kenyans should also put to task the relevant ministries to develop and implement national directives that govern landfilling so as to protect human and ecosystem health.