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Introduction
Wewak is the capital of the East Sepik Province located on the north west coast
of Papua New Guinea. It is a town of 27,000 people run by the Town Commission.
It has a major wharf for imported cargo, a commercial area with shops and offices,
many markets, a hospital, an army barracks, a number of schools and an airport.
Wewak houses range in style from traditional homes made from bush materials
to modern western homes. People from inland or island villages who work or study
in Wewak tend to live in settlements with others from the same area. Over the
years, contact with Europeans has changed the eating and living habits of the
people of Wewak. Running water and electricity have introduced washing machines
and washing powder, refrigerators and packaged foods, kitchen sinks and detergents.
While the benefits of these products and services are enormous, they have also
brought the problem of western style waste with them. As more people change
from traditional to modern lifestyles so too does the type and amount of household
waste.
Waste management issues
In the past, household waste was organic and nature took care of it. Villagers
would put their waste into piles, burn it, throw it in the sea or the bush.
Today markets still sell fresh fruit and vegetables and smoked fish wrapped
in banana leaves or placed directly into the buyer’s string bag while supermarkets
sell imported, packaged goods in plastic bags. Although there is a regular rubbish
collection in the town area, many households still treat their rubbish in traditional
ways. It is heaped into piles and left to rot or it is buried or burned. Often
the air in Wewak is filled with the smoke of thousands of small rubbish fires.
Plastic packaging and steel cans, from the imported food items, now forms the
major part of household waste in Wewak. There is no recycling program in Wewak.
The unsorted rubbish from households is put into plastic bags, which are collected
by a contractor and taken to the rubbish dump on the outskirts of town. Only
a road separates the rubbish dump from a nearby village settlement and a school,
and only a narrow strip of water separates the dump from another settlement.
Once at the dump, the rubbish is simply emptied onto the land. The newly dumped
rubbish is sometimes burned or moved into larger piles.
Sewage is also disposed of in the dump. Some settlements have sewage buckets,
which are collected and emptied into the lagoon on the edge of the dump. Nearby
communities are concerned about pollution from the sewage, the waste piles and
the burning rubbish.
People and pollution – three stories
i) Where there's Smoke...
The smoke from the burning rubbish is carried by the wind straight into the
grounds and classrooms of the Mongniol Community School. Nine hundred students
from grades one to six attend this school. Sometimes the smell of the smoke
from burning plastic, chemical and food waste is unbearable. The teachers and
children from the school are often sick and have to stay away from school. The
students and their parents have complained and the headmaster has taken the
complaints to the Town Commission many times.
ii) Creeping Waste Line...
The rubbish also affects the people from the settlement across the road from
the dump. Some of their income is based on the rubbish they collect from the
dump before it is burned. Bottles and aluminium cans are sold, while firewood,
building materials, old clothes and furniture may be used, sold or traded. However
the settlers fear of the pests and diseases that breed in the dump. The problem
has increased as the rubbish dump has expanded and come closer to their homes
and the liquid (leachate) that seeps from the rubbish increasingly contaminates
the ground near their homes and the edges of the mangrove swamp.
iii) Unsafe Waters
There is a small settlement straight across from where the sewage is emptied
into the lagoon. The settlers rely on fish as part of their food and income.
They can see how the sewage is trapped by the tide and believe that the fish
may be no longer safe to eat. They worry that they will not be able to sell
their fish and also about the health of their children swimming or playing in
the lagoon.
The Power of Many
A number of people have tried separately to make the authorities take notice
of the rubbish dump problems but it was only when the East Sepik Council of
Women organised a meeting for the local community that things began to change.
Amongst the people who came to the meeting were the headmaster from the Mongniol
Community School, an elder from the settlement, the director of the Local Environment
Foundation, women from the East Sepik Council of Women and the staff in charge
of waste and planning from the Town Commission. Everyone came to hear each others'
stories and to discuss solutions.
At the end of the meeting the individuals formed a group to ask the government
to improve waste management and clean up the town's dump. The individuals had
become a group and the power of many was at work.
The Town Commission has since removed the rubbish from the corner closest to
the school. They have covered the ground with fresh soil and topped it with
a layer of gravel. The students from the Mongniol Community School have written
to the Town Commission to thank them for their efforts. Now the students will
keep a close watch on the site and report any burning of rubbish. They have
a voice in the future of the dump and are already making a waste plan for their
school. They are also part of the power of many.
Student writing
Writing by Grade 6 students
Mongniol Community School, Wewak, PNG
Mongniol Rubbish Dump
Grum! Grum! Grum!
Goes the old rubbish dump truck.
With it's rumbling noise.
Like rumbling thunder.
Early morning at six am till six pm
Men come and go empty the rubbish
From the town residents.
Who cares? is what they think.
Umsh! Umsh!
Goes the smell of the dump
Into my classroom
I sniff sniff and sniff trying to breathe
But who cares? is what they think.
Oh no! It's just too much for me
The smell becomes stuffy and smelly
Makes my stomach grumble
And affects my learning.
How can someone help and stop them
For me, a child of today's generation
And tomorrow.
By Nasomai
Environment Pollution
Mongniol Rubbish Dump
Almost six years of schooling, sitting inside my classroom, cracking my head,
I can smell and feel the cool breeze coming through from all angles. But still
the same environment surrounds me. Nothing else but the same old rubbish dump.
Doing my school work is not a problem to me, but the dump affects my health
and my studies. But how can I complain about the old rubbish dump?
Nothing else, but I have to stay and continue my primary education for this
year only to complete my grade six.
I wish we should already have an advanced country, that we shouldn't have this
problem. The place of the old Mongniol rubbish dump should be good shopping
centres with big buildings and beautiful flowers planted around the buildings.
There should be car parks, platforms, fish ponds and show grounds.
So I wish, one fine day, when I grow up, that we would all be in a luxury world
in my own clean country. So it is a problem for us to face such as the Mongniol
rubbish dump that causes the pollution of the surrounding environment.
It hurts my lungs and heart and makes me sick often.
I would like to ask the head master to ask the manager of the works department
to send some machines to remove the rubbish.
The Pollution of the Mongniol Rubbish Dump
My name is Sandy Kewa. I am one of the 900 students of Mongniol School in Wewak
town. I would like to bring my concerns to the Wewak Town Authority about the
rubbish dump near our school.
The dump is only about 30 metres away from our school and it really affects
all the students and teachers in the school. The smell is unbelievable. It makes
us feel like vomiting and it also brings many flies.
When we eat our food during lunch time we can't stand the flies. No wonder
so many students get sick with diarrhoea and stomach-ache because of the flies.
I appeal to the town authority to move the rubbish dump away from our school
and away from the town area.
The dump also gives a bad impression to any visitors or tourist who come visit
our town. If the town council is serious about cleaning the town area they must
remove the dump from where it is now.
On behalf of the students and teachers of Mongniol school I strongly urge the
town council to do something about the rubbish dump - now!
It must be done before any students get any serious sickness because of the
poor council foresight and before visitors or tourists give a bad report of
my home town.
Thank you for listening.
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