A bayakou is a sanitation worker who works to empty the fecal sludge out of pit latrines in Haiti, especially in larger cities, such as Port-au-Prince.[1] The word bayakou comes from Haitian Creole.[2][3] Bayakou are subjected to social stigma for their work in manually emptying septic tanks and pit latrines.[4]

The more general term used for this kind of undignified practice, particularly in India, is "manual scavenging". Proper emptying of pit latrines is part of a city-wide fecal sludge management concept.

Background

Port-au-Prince, with close to 3 million residents, is one of the largest cities in the world without a sewer system.[5] Sinks, showers and toilets have no connection to a central sewage treatment plant.[6] Most of the city uses septic tanks and pit latrines.[5] Port-au-Prince finally opened its first sewage treatment plant, Morne a Cabrit, in 2012 with a second, unfinished plant mostly abandoned.[6]

Description

Because of the lack of infrastructure for sewage removal, the city turns to other means. The bayakou in Port-au-Prince are paid to come annually to empty the pits of full pit latrines.[7]

Bayakou use plastic buckets to empty pit latrines during the night.[8] The bayakou work as a crew. One part of the bayakou team climbs through the toilet's squat hole into the pit under the latrine and fills the bucket.[8] Then the person in the pit hands the bucket up to another crew-member.[8] The human waste is put into sacks and placed into a wheelbarrow which a third person carts away.[4] The waste is normally dumped on the ground, ravines or sometimes into vacuum trucks run by private companies who will take the waste to the treatment plant.[8][9] Dumping waste anywhere other than in a treatment plant is illegal.[10] Some bayakou have been arrested for transporting waste.[11]

Before entering the pit, bayakou pour floor cleaner into the pit in order to soften the fecal sludge.[8] Many bayakou clean the pit in the nude because the filth in the latrines will ruin their clothes and protective gear.[8][9] Hazards of the job include injury from objects thrown into latrines and exposure to infectious diseases such as cholera.[9]

Bayakou and their families also face social stigma for working with human waste.[10][9]

References

  1. ↑ "Bayakou". Le Nouvelliste (in French). 15 October 2014. Retrieved 2017-07-30.
  2. ↑ Curnutte, Mark (2011). A Promise in Haiti: A Reporter's Notes on Families and Daily Lives. Nashville, Tennessee: Vanderbilt University Press. p. 81. ISBN 9780826517852.
  3. ↑ Vilsaint, Féquière; Berret, Jean-Evens (2005). English Haitian Creole Dictionary (2nd ed.). Coconut Creek, Florida: Educa Vision Inc. p. 149. ISBN 9781584322139.
  4. 1 2 "Dirty Job Shows Why Cholera Still Kills in Haiti". VOA. 28 December 2016. Retrieved 2017-07-30.
  5. 1 2 Knox, Richard (13 April 2012). "Port-Au-Prince: A City Of Millions, With No Sewer System". NPR. Retrieved 2017-07-30.
  6. 1 2 Hersher, Rebecca (29 July 2017). "You Probably Don't Want To Know About Haiti's Sewage Problems". NPR. Retrieved 2017-07-30.
  7. ↑ Wilentz, Amy (2010-11-25). "In Haiti, Waiting for the Grand Bayakou". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-07-30.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Katz, Jonathan M. (12 March 2014). "Haiti's Shadow Sanitation System". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2017-07-30.
  9. 1 2 3 4 Hersher, Rebecca (30 July 2017). "Haiti's 'Bayakou': Hauling Away Human Excrement By Hand". NPR. Retrieved 2017-07-30.
  10. 1 2 "Supporting Haiti's "Underground" Sanitation Workers". SOIL Haiti. Retrieved 2017-07-30.
  11. ↑ Webb, Steven (April 2010). "Waste Not, Want Not". IAPMonline. Retrieved 2017-07-30.
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