Characteristics
La Chureca is a slang term for the city trash dump in Managua, Nicaragua, referring to a community of people who live and work there, "sifting" or "filtering" through the garbage daily (Athanasiadou & Cuadra, &Marsh, & Bergman, Jakobsson;2008). La Chureca is the municipal domestic and industrial waste disposal site in Managua, the capital of Nicaragua. Managua, which is in the south western part of Nicaragua, is situated at the shore of Lake Managua. Lake Managua is the second largest lake in Nicaragua and is used as the recipient of domestic and industrial wastewater from the city (Cuadra & Linderholm & Athanasiadou & Jakobsson, 2006). La Chureca is located on the south shore of Lake Managua and covers an area of 7km2. It is beside the museum that contains the famous 6,000 year-old Acahualinca footprints, the oldest remaining human and animal footprints on the American continent. La Chureca is the largest open air dumpster in Central America. It is surrounded by high brick walls, covering 42 hectares of Managua with vultures soaring over infinite layers of garbage. Grisby Vergara (2008) describes this area as a war zone and an “enormous breeding ground for flies, microbes, rotting food, burnt trash, hundreds of plastic bags..”. There is always a thick cloud of smoke that covers the area, increasing with the heat of the day. This thick cloud of smoke is a result of the fires that are set by the Mayor and municipal government office to keep the garbage from piling up and retrieve iron and other materials (Cuadra, &Linderholm, & Athanasiadou, & Jakobsson, 2006). In addition, there is constant stench in the air of shoe glue, lead, and excrement (Grisby Vergara, 2008).
Managua’s population has considerably expanded since 1995 (Bergin, 2008). Consequently, garbage production has also increased. Managua produces over 1,200 tons of garbage daily (Grisby Vergara, 2008). There are big trucks full of garbage that arrive in La Chureca every day at all hours of the day. There are approximately 3000 individuals who make their living working in La Chureca (Grisby Vergara, 2008). Of these, approximately 115-180 families live within La Chureca. The individuals who work and live in La Chureca are named ‘churequeros’ and they are some of the poorest people of the country. Of these, more than 50% are children under the age of 18 (Cuadra, &Linderholm, & Athanasiadou, & Jakobsson, 2006). Children are most often involved in more than one activity, most frequently: handling glass, metals, and plastics (ibid). Working in La Chureca is considered one of the worst forms of child labour in Nicaragua (ibid). Some of the most common activities of La Chureca workers of all ages include: recollection, classification, selling, storing, and cleaning of recyclable waste (Cuadra, &Linderholm, &Athanasiadou, & Jakobsson; 2006). Over the years, ‘churequeros’ have figured out ways of organizing the trash and making small profits off salvageable and recyclable materials (Bergin, 2008). These individuals swarm all around La Chureca with makeshift spears which are used to pick through the garbage which is then sorted and sold to suppliers of recyclable materials. Workers in La Chureca are self- employed individuals and, or families who collect salvageable items such as plastic, aluminum cans, and scrap metals such as copper and iron (Bergin, 2008). These workers are highly organized labour chains. That is, if one person collects glass, the other will clean it, another will crush and recycle it and another will sell it to a collector who will then sell it to different companies (Grisby Vergara, 2008). It is clear that the existing piles of garbage would be much larger if it were not for the individuals that work there (Grisby Vergara, 2008). La Chureca produces approximately 20 million (US $) a year in marketable garbage and Churequeros earn between $1.50 (US) and $2 (US) a day (Bergin, 2008). Materials are often sold by the pound. For example, eleven pounds of aluminum equates to roughly twelve córdoba profits (US$ 0.63) for garbage sorters (Bergin, 2008).
Living and working in La Chureca brings terrible health hazards to churequeros. Often, families need to scavenge food from the waste as they lack the means necessary to purchase food. The food that is scavenged is mostly from restaurants dumping including: meat, dairy products, vegetable, and fruits (Bergin, 2008). The consumption of this rotting food frequently leads to intestinal and digestive problems for Churequeros (ibid). Because there used to be a slaughterhouse across the lagoon which merges with La Chureca, remains of farm animals such as bones, cow heads, and blood; pollute the land, water, and air in and surrounding La Chureca. In addition, much of the garbage from La Chureca often spills over into Lake Managua, affecting its natural resources. Fish from Lake Managua are an important part of the diet of the population living in poverty at lakeshore yet, there have been high levels of mercury found in native fish species in Lake Managua (Cuadra, &Linderholm, & Athanasiadou, & Jakobsson, 2006; Mc Crary, Castro, McKaye, 2005).
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