Waste being used to tackle erosion poses a health risk – an anthropologist explains the dilemma

A field of waste fills in the gully that has formed between houses on either side in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Declan Murray, CC BY-NC-ND

I was standing with a waste management supervisor – let’s call him David – at the back of a major fruit and vegetable market in Dar es Salaam, the biggest city in Tanzania. David and I watched as his team raked the market’s waste from a holding bay into the back of a big, yellow tipper truck.

“We’re not taking this to Pugu,” David said. “We’re taking this to an illegal site”.