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WOMEN AND WASTE MANAGEMENT IN URBAN MEXICO
Marianne Schmink
Consultant, The Population Council
Center for Latin American Studies
University of Florida
Gainesville, Florida 32611
Presented at the Latin American Studies Association meeting,
Albuquerque, April 17-21, 1985
WOMEN AND WASTE MANAGEMENT IN URBAN MEXICO
I. Introduction
In urban areas of the developing world, the accumulation and
means of disposal of wastes can have a marked influence on the
sanitary and health levels of the community. Low income populations
often inhabit hillsides and other broken terrain that make it
difficult and expensive to provide traditional waste disposal
systems. The International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation
Decade (1980-1990) focused greater attention on these issues and on
the need to develop low-cost alternatives that are technologically
appropriate to urban areas. But technical solutions must also be
linked to sociological aspects of such new technologies. One
important issue is the role played by women in service management.
In recent years there has been growing recognition of the
important role played by women in managing water and sanitation
systems in low income communities of developing countries. Studies
carried out in the 1970s highlighted women's heavy labor
contributions to water provisioning, especially in rural areas.
They also showed that although women were the principal managers of
water and sanitation systems, this fact was frequently overlooked by
planners who tended to focus their project efforts on community
leaders who were predominantly male. This tendency sometimes
impeded successful implementation of water and sanitation projects
and limited women's access to the health, employment and productive
benefits such projects could provide (see United Nations 1977;
Elmendorf and Buckles 1978; The Tribune 1982).
Women's management of water and wastes is a good example of
their participation in an essential activity that tends to be
"invisible." Disposal of household wastes is but one of the many
tasks women carry out routinely as part of their housewife role. By
extension, it is most frequently women who become involved in
addressing problems of water supply, sanitation, and waste
management at the community level. The importance of these basic
services for low income communities underscores the need to
recognize and support women's individual and collective efforts.
Waste management has both a service aspect -- the sanitary
disposal of household and community wastes -- and a potential
economic return when wastes are not just discarded but recuperated
for re-use. Use of recycled wastes by industry is big business in
many developing countries, indirectly absorbing thousands of workers
who collect useful materials from garbage deposits and deliver them
to intermediaries who in turn supply them to factories and workshops
in the paper, steel, plastics and other sectors. In Mexico City an
estimated ten thousand persons work in the dumps or streets,
separating wastes according to their re-sale value and selling these
items for about one peso per kilo to middlemen who in turn sell to
industries for three to four pesos/kilo. In Brazil, an informed
estimate placed the value of these activities at US$250 billion
annually, roughly equivalent to the nation's coffee production (Isto
E 1984). Some 6,000 tons of garbage are collected daily in Sao
Paulo, 53% of it by just one company. The 1973 oil crisis, and more
recently the impact of several years of economic recession in
Brazil, increased the prices of recylable materials and incentives
for re-use. The paper industry in that country now depends on
recycled wastes for 30% of its raw materials, compared to 18% in
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1972. A case study of the paper industry in Cali, Colombia,
similarly found that waste paper provided 33% of the raw material
used. It also emphasized the heirarchical nature of the waste
recycling industry, in which the income of the individual garbage
picker remained low despite the substantial profits to be made at
higher levels of the enterprise (Birkbeck 1979).
The rising economic value of waste materials also provides an
incentive for individual families to separate and save or sell
certain items among their household garbage. Recycling of wastes at
the level of urban communities is probably a far less common
phenomenon. Yet such enterprises hold the double promise of
improving service provision and community health conditions, while
also providing a potential economic return. If organized on a
cooperative basis they permit the community to retain control over
the profits generated. These benefits can be especially important
for women, who are most likely to be participants in community waste
recycling activities.
The remainder of this chapter documents the initial impact of a
new technology for community management of waste recycling in two
urban neighborhoods in Mexico. It is based on a collaborative study
that received support through the Mexico City-based working group
"Mujer y Ciudad," part of the Population Council/USAID project
entitled "Women, Low Income Households and Urban Services in Latin
America and the Caribbean." The study was coordinated by working
group member Fernando Ortiz Monasterio, and counted on the
assistance of Josefina Mena, the inventor of the technology and
founder of the group that sought to implement it. Cooperatives in
the two communities also collaborated in writing the project's final
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report. Finally, consultant Marianne Schmink subsequently visited
both community sites twice in order to collect additional
information for a publication documenting their experiences with the
new technology (Schmink 1985).
II. The SIRDO Experiment in Mexico
The SIRDO
The SIRDO (Integrated System for Recycling Wastes) system has
been under development by the Alternative Technology Group (GTA for
the Spanish Grupo de Tecnologia Alternativa) in Mexico since 1978.
GTA is a small group founded by architect Josefina Mena in order to
develop technologies for recycling organic wastes in urban areas.
The SIRDO is designed not only to manage urban wastes, but also to
include in this process the potential for income and employment
generating activities. The system is based on intensive labor
inputs in all phases from construction through maintenance, as well
as production. Its characteristics enable cooperative community
management for day-to-day operation.
Basically the SIRDO system works as follows. Each house is
connected to the community system by two pipes that separate the
"gray waters" (those containing detergents flowing from bathroom,
sink and laundry) from the "black waters" coming from the toilet.
After filtering, 80% of the "gray waters" can be reused for
irrigation. The "black waters" are channelled into an accelerated
sedimentation tank where sludge is separated from the water. The
sludge is spread into an aerobic decomposition chamber and then
mixed with household garbage. In this chamber solar drying
evaporates the water and within a year's time the sludge is
transformed into a nutrient-rich fertilizer. The chamber's dual
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compartments yield fertilizer harvests at alternating six-month
intervals. The treated "black waters" in the meantime pass into
garden beds where vegetables and flowers may be grown; they may also
be channelled into ponds to support aquaculture.
The unique technical feature of the SIRDO is its combination of
aerobic and anaerobic processes. The system produces a dry powder
fertilizer that resembles ground coffee in appearance and is free of
pathogens. Yet it is based on waterborne sewage instead of dry
privies that are unacceptable to most urban populations in Mexico.
The intermediate scale of the SIRDO is the key to its innovative
quality. Wastes in the chamber are decomposed by aerobic bacteria
contained in excreta. These bacteria must be supplied with the
proper proportion of carbon (as food) and nitrogen (as fuel) in
order to enable the aerobiotic process. Black water sludge must be
added to the chamber at intervals no longer than 48 hours in order
to achieve the proper chemical balance. Such careful control would
be impossible with a municipal-level system for treating wastes, in
which nitrogen would be lost from urine during transit. On the
other hand, the system is too costly to be installed on a
single-house basis. Therefore it is ideal for community-level
management and operation.
Because of its hybrid nature, the SIRDO is carefully adapted to
each specific site, and monitored over time to assure proper
functioning. Ecological and socioeconomic aspects of each community
will determine the precise technical design of the system and its
management. Through such experimentation, the GTA is continually
improving the SIRDO with the active collaboration of community
members. The system is therefore a good example of the complexity
5
of the process of technological and socioeconomic change, as it has
been experienced by two Mexican communities.
Introducing the SIRDO in Merida
At the beginning of 1978, a group of families were awaiting
access to low-cost housing in Merida, a city on Mexico's
southeastern coast. Typically such subsidized housing consists of a
three-room core unit with water, electricity and drainage. The
waiting list for houses with the conventional type of drainage used
in the region, with an absorption well and septic tank, was long.
There were some units, however, equipped with the SIRDO. This
system was 20-40% less costly than the conventional one and posed
fewer risks of environmental contamination. Families interested in
living in the experimental block where the SIRDO was to be installed
could be given housing right away. Those who accepted the offer
were compelled to do so by their urgent need for housing. Although
the drainage system was explained to them, for most it was still an
unknown when they moved in.
Between January and May of 1980, the GTA built the first two
SIRDO units in Merida with financing from INDECO, a government
agency charged with assisting low-income populations in acquiring
lots for housing with basic services provided. The agency's central
office was interested in the new technology, and the regional office
in Merida somewhat reluctantly revised its housing program to
accommodate the new drainage system. Apart from offering lots with
water and electricity, the agency financed the drainage system and
connected it to core houses -- the basic three-room unit to which
families could later add more rooms. Original plans called for
installation of houses and drainage in 28 blocks near the southern
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edge of the city. In practice only one block was provided with the
SIRDO.
At the end of 1980, the agency granted housing to two dozen
families in the experimental block. Little by little they began to
occupy their lots. Most of the families were headed by men employed
in services, small-scale commerce, or crafts. The vast majority
were self-employed, and more than half earned less than the
prevailing minimum wage. Most of the women had no regular
employment, but since marital unions are often somewhat unstable,
many had worked at some point in their lives, either as primary or
supplementary supporters of their families. Those women who did
hold jobs usually worked as domestics or in the small-scale sale of
food and other items. Only one woman worked in a factory. The
families had three children on average, and most of the adults were
literate but had not continued their education beyo;. the prii-ia,,
school level.
The GTA presented a series of orientation talks in August of
1979 about the SIRDO which the families attended somewhat
skeptically. Because of ambivalent support for the project within
the regional housing agency, all but one of these families were
subsequently settled elsewhere. Thus those who moved into the
experimental block did so without the benefit of the orientation
sessions. Furthermore, community members who opposed the new system
committed several acts of vandalism. The drainage system began to
function, but there were many problems in its initial phase of
operation. Users complained of flies, unpleasant odors, and
leakage. In addition, changes had to be made in the housecleaning
routine. Acid products could not be used for cleaning because they
7
would damage the chemical balance in the decomposition chamber. The
system also required that organic garbage be separated from
plastics, glass, and metals which could not be dumped into the
chamber. For these reasons, many community members were resistant
to the system despite the assurances they received from GTA as to
its advantages.
But soon the odors began to disappear and the other problems
were resolved. The children were the first to begin to collaborate
with GTA staff and participate in maintenance tasks such as
separation of garbage and dumping of organic wastes into the
chamber. They even painted wall murals that showed how to use the
system. Seeing this example, many of the women began to cooperate
as well. In May of 1981, a few community women started meeting to
allocate tasks on a cooperative basis. They also formed a committee
to guard the system against vandalism by those opposed to the SIRDO.
Strong opposition to the SIRDO was encountered at both sites
where the system was initially introduced. As in many other
countries, in Mexico the provision of urban land and services is
influenced by political considerations (Legorreta 1983; Velez-Ibanez
1983). Typically, community leaders or groups recognize the need
for housing sites and/or services and organize residents to make
demands to politicians in the ruling government party. In response,
government agencies seek to establish a "patron-client" relationship
with these leaders by offering to subsidize urban services. Usually
the community receiving the services is required to contribute labor
and money to the project as well. Private companies also profit
from contracts for public work projects. Through such
"clientelistic" politics all parties can stand to gain.
It is perhaps not surprising then that a community-managed
system such as the SIRDO might initially be perceived as a challenge
by those having an interest in the established way of doing things.
Community members with close ties to benefactors worry that their
position may be weakened by such community initiatives. Some
government officials may be resistant because they think such
projects will make the urban population less dependent on state
support and thereby increase their political independence. And
private firms may resent the loss of profits from large public works
contracts. Added to the potential resistance of those with vested
interests in the status quo is the natural skepticism that tends to
surround the introduction of any new technology. Many people are
just more comfortable with a system they know works and which is
what "everyone else has." Furthermore, since most people have
little awareness of the risks of contamination from other types of
drainage systems, the SIRDO's environmental benefits can only be
demonstrated through an educational program. What frequently
happens then is that vested political and business interests from
both within and outside the community that are opposed to the system
take advantage of its unfamiliarity to encourage opposition. "ney
argue instead for the traditional form of service provision that
relies on the clientelistic process.
There are, however, other government officials who favor new
service delivery systems such as the SIRDO because they stimulate
community self-help and are lower in cost than traditional systems.
This position has been increasing in strength as the current
economic crisis makes the Mexican government less and less able to
afford costly investments such as conventional drainage systems.
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Furthermore, the SIRDO has generated strong interest because of its
role in reducing the risks of environmental contamination and in
educating the urban population about these concerns. So despite
some incidents and harassment, the experiment went forward.
In October of 1981, to the astonishment of the residents of the
experimental block, the first harvest yielded nearly a ton of
fertilizer. Community members now needed to organize the labor
required to remove the fertilizer from the chamber and to process it
for use or sale. This increased the workload and required greater
organization on the part of the community. Thus the idea of forming
a cooperative was born. After seeking information and technical
advice from several sources, the residents voted to name their new
cooperative Muchuc-Baex, a Mayan term meaning "let's get
together." The fertilizer itself was named tierra bonita (pretty
earth). By January 1982, the Cooperative Muchuc-Baex was legally
constituted with 18 members, 14 of them women.
The Cooperative's first goal was the sale of the fertilizer.
This required modest capital to purchase plastic bags, labels,
stapler, a scale and a few other essential tools. The GTA offered
several small loans during this initial period to assist the
Cooperative and was later repaid in fertilizer. Members set to work
extracting the fertilizer from the chamber, mixing it with earth,
and putting it into one-kilo bags for sale. Initially the mocking
remarks of neighbors ("crazy women playing with shit") discouraged
some women from participating in these tasks. Others, however,
persevered and by the end of 1982, the Cooperative was selling its
fertilizer in two main supermarkets in the city, bringing in a
small, but symbolically important income to the group.
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By September of 1983, the GTA had delegated most of the
responsibility for maintenance of the system to the community, the
neighborhood's children had written and performed their own play
recounting the history of the Cooperative, and Muchuc-Baex had
reaped four fertilizer harvests. The quality of the fertilizer was
evident both in kitchen gardens of the members and through tests
carried out by the local agency of the federal agricultural ministry
(SARH). To promote its fertilizer, the group used photographs of
the giant cucumber produced in one of their gardens.
With technical assistance from the GTA, eight Cooperative
members operate and maintain the SIRDO. In general, the men carry
out the heavier, periodic cleaning jobs for which they receive
nominal payment. The tasks associated with day-to-day operation,
which are not too time consuming, are taken care of by the majority
of the neighborhood's women who do not hold jobs outside the home.
The maintenance tasks are periodically rotated among members on a
voluntary basis. The technical requirements of the SIRDO are
spelled out in the "Biotics Manual" provided by the GTA which serves
as a reference guide for community managers. Cooperative members
work collectively to process and package the fertilizer on weekends.
While Cooperative members are now convinced of the advantages
of the SIRDO, they also recognize that some problems still exist.
Their housing development was not designed with the system in mind,
and its piping and treatment sites occupy physical space that is in
short supply; nor is there any work area for the maintenance
operations such as cleaning of filters. Other aspects also could be
improved: the cement covers for the gray water filter, for example,
are so heavy that women generally have to rely on male help to
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remove them; and there is a need for equipment, such as gloves and
masks, to protect workers from the fine dust raised during the
sifting and mixing operation.
To insure its economic feasibility, the Cooperative's current
need is to widen the market for its fertilizer. Its members have
produced four harvests of about one ton each -- about half the
maximum capacity of their two units. Two of these harvests were
sold or used, the third was damaged by gray water detergents, and
most of the latest harvest is now stored in the houses of members.
So far most earnings have been re-invested in productive enterprises
(e.g., purchase of earth for mixing) although small amounts have
been distributed to members based on the amount of labor
contributed.
At this initial stage the Cooperative is willing to sell below
real costs in order to build a market for their product. The good
results they have seen in their own gardens have given them
confidence in their product and the patience to wait for demand to
grow in the long run. Currently most sales are to middle class
urban dwellers who use the fertilizer in their gardens. Cooperative
members hope they eventually can get it into the hands of peasants
to improve the quality of their overworked soil. Fertilizer could
even be exchanged for foodstuffs needed by members' families;
however as yet they have not found a mechanism to link them directly
to peasant producers in their region.
Aside from the potential economic return from fertilizer sales,
Cooperative activities take on a larger meaning for the community.
From the beginning, membership has been made up almost entirely of
women, although several of their husbands regularly help with
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specific tasks. In some cases, husbands have tried to impede their
wives' participation, but the women recognize the value of their
collective activities and continue to participate in the
organization. To these women the SIRDO provides a basis for
community solidarity that surpasses the importance of the future
income they hope to generate. The Cooperative's president put it
this way:
Most people (in the cooperative) are not thinking about
money. I lived for eleven years without knowing my
neighbor's name. After I moved I lived here for three
years without knowing my neighbors. If I don't know my
neighbor and there is an emergency in the middle of the
night I can't call on her nor can she call on me.
This is the greatest value of the cooperative. Here,
we are more sisters than neighbors. If I don't have
money to eat, I'm not ashamed to ask Dona Candita for
two hundred pesos or for some leftover tortillas. The
drainage system has done this. If it did not exist I
assure you that I would be here all these years without
knowing my neighbors' names.
Community women stress that mutual aid is now a practice
that extends to virtually all aspects of their daily lives.
Cooperative members work together in other activities as well,
including the collection of inorganic garbage and the wholesale
buying of vegetables from peasant producers. In 1981 they built
a recreational park for their children and convinced the state to
donate playground equipment. They use their own fertilizer to
plant productive kitchen gardens. In the future they plan to
build a warehouse to store their fertilizer.
The Pilot Experience in the Valley of Mexico
A more recent pilot SIRDO experience in an urban community
in the Valley of Mexico has drawn on the lessons learned in
Merida (Monasterio, Mena, and Parada 1983). This zone, including
Mexico City and its surroundings, accounted for about twenty
percent of the total Mexican population, or roughly thirteen
million persons in 1978. While the population of the zone
continued to grow at an annual rate of about five percent, the
volume of wastes produced has grown at the astounding rate of
about thirty percent per year. By 1984, this amounted to
approximately 13,000 tons of waste per day in Mexico City, of
which about one-third were organic materials. On average, each
resident of the city produces one and a half kilos each day of
waste products. An estimated seventy to eighty percent of these
wastes are not systematically recycled and pose a threat of
contamination to the environment. Alternative waste-management
systems like the SIRDO appear. to be well-suited to such
circumstances.
The history of the community where the second SIRDO pilot
project is located is distinct from the Merida neighborhood.
Located near the northern margin of the city, it is managed by a
community cooperative that began in 1956 with forty-eight low
income families. The cooperative first negotiated the purchase
of an area for settlement, then took charge of dividing it into
lots, opening streets, and assisting residents to construct
houses. Later it oversaw the installation of the community's own
water system and electricity, and the building of schools, green
areas, and other facilities. All this has made the community a
desirable neighborhood in comparison to other less organized
areas in the Valley of Mexico.
By 1976 the problem of waste disposal had become apparent.
The community was inhabited by about 18,000 persons who produced
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about 240 tons of wastes per month. About one-third of this
quantity was collected by trucks; the rest was deposited by
residents in ravines, green areas or vacant lots. Open-air
drainage also collected in ravines. As these deposits led to
contamination, the community began to explore ways to resolve
their growing problem.
The first option was conventional waterborne drainage, the
cost of which had been estimated at twenty-six million pesos
(about US$1 million) in 1972. The community was able to raise
only two percent of this amount over the next eight years. In
1979 a new estimate by the municipality placed the cost at
forty-four million pesos without calculating direct costs which
would raise the sum to nearly sixty million (more than US$2
million). By this time the cooperative had managed to raise two
and a half million pesos, or about four percent of the total
cost. Given the impossibility of paying for the conventional
system, the cooperative began to seek alternative solutions.
This is when it came into contact with the GTA in Merida.
In early 1982, forty members of the cooperative visited
Merida, attended a meeting of the Cooperative Muchuc-Baex, and
became acquainted with the SIRDO. Shortly thereafter cooperative
members voted in a general assembly to use the money collected
for the conventional drainage system to finance installation of a
pilot SIRDO, with technical assistance from the GTA and other
groups in Mexico City. Community members explored financing for
the project's various stages. This pilot system would serve
eighty-four families settled on forty lots surrounding a natural
pond, as well as a secondary school with about eighty students.
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Experiments with aquaculture were to be carried out in the
lily-pond.
At the outset, only about 20% of the population favored the
new technology; another one-half were doubtful or did not
understand how it worked. The remainder were opposed.
Nonetheless construction went ahead over a period of twenty-seven
weeks and the pilot system was inaugurated in December, 1982.
Twenty-two community members contributed their own labor; the
direct costs of construction came to two and a half million pesos
(about US$55,000). In order to assist in preparing the community
for the new technology, members of the Machuc-Baex Cooperative
developed a seven-lesson course for users, promoters and
technicians. Both adults and children attended this course. A
competition that was part of the course invited the children to
suomit their best drawings related to the SIRDO.
Immediately after the pilot system began to function, two
more sections of the community requested consideration for the
next SIRDO. One group formed a committee of twenty-four persons
and named a treasurer on each block to collect funds to finance
the project. GTA began to prepare designs for these two areas.
The municipality tentatively offered six million pesos (about
US$60,000) in credit for construction of the system. A
Technical Council, consisting of cooperative representatives,
technical advisors and state and municipal government personnel
was formed to oversee the new installation.
While these plans were getting underway, however, those
opposed to the new system were also organizing. They formed a
Council for Municipal Collaboration and tacitly opposed
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construction of the new SIRDO. They put pressure on the
municipality causing it to withdraw its offer of support for the
SIRDO and promise instead to construct a traditional drainage
system at a cost of three hundred million pesos (about US$3
million). The atmosphere became unpleasant as a director of the
local primary school prohibited two teachers from taking their
students on a site visit to the SIRDO as a field lesson on the
environment, and the dome on the gray waters filter and the
grating on the chimneys of the decomposition chamber were broken
by vandals. In 1983, the anti-SIRDO group was able to win
control of the cooperative's directorship, but the community
itself remained divided over the issue.
In contrast to the experience in Merida, membership in the
cooperative in the Valley of Mexico averages about thirty percent
women. Since the cooperative's statutes permit only one member
per family, representation is usually by the male head of the
household. One woman reported being prohibited from taking her
absent husband's place at a cooperative meeting. In contrast,
the Merida cooperative is based on individual membership which
permits women to have a greater voice in collective decisions.
As one woman put it: "Sometimes I think one way and my husband
thinks differently. But both votes count." Despite limits to
their direct participation in the cooperative, however, the women
in the Valley of Mexico found ways to exert their collective
power in matters related to basic community services, including
the SIRDO.
The cooperative's new leadership soon felt the women's
pressure when the community's water system failed. Women bore
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the brunt of weeks of hauling water long distances and of
deteriorating sanitary conditions. A small group of women who
previously had not known each other called a meeting to discuss
solutions to the water problem. Systematically they organized
neighbors in each zone within the neighborhood until they
succeeded in ousting the cooperative's directorate and calling
for new elections. They also raised nearly US$5,000 from raffles
and donations over a one-month period, to pay for needed repairs
and overdue water bills. They succeeded in forming a "Gran
Commission" to oversee the work of the cooperative's Directorate.
Six of the nine commission members are women.
Once the water problem was resolved, the commission turned
its attention to other community problems including road paving,
green areas, and drainage. When the municipal authorities showed
up and began to dig up the neighborhood streets to put in the
promised conventional drainage system, the women resisted.
Individual women faced the construction teams saying, "you will
not dig in front of my house!" They were backed up by a large
group of women who informed the officials that, "If you arrest
her, you will have to take all of us." The women of the
community were learning to use their collective solidarity as an
effective tool of resistance and pressure within their own
communities. (For a similar case of women's resistance, see
Velez-Ibanez 1983, 118-121.) The road was now paved for getting
on with activities related to installation and operation of the
SIRDO.
During the first year following its installation, the
SIRDO's primary merit was an improvement in the environmental
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condition: fewer flies and rats now that garbage and sewage no
longer accumulated in the ravine behind the houses. However
since only a small proportion of the neighborhood's houses were
connected to the system, other sources of contamination still
existed.
As in Merida, the appearance of the first harvest of
fertilizer provided the needed incentive for greater involvement
by the users. The fertilizer was tested by the state water and
sanitation company after the residents used their ties to
advisors to the state governor (who favored the SIRDO) to elicit
its assistance. The tests initially showed some germs remaining,
due to improper operations, so the residents corrected this
problem by further drying and the addition of more organic
matter. By May of 1984, the tests had improved.
In the meantime, the SIRDO users began to organize
themselves for the tasks of producing the fertilizer and planning
new productive activities. In March about 20 families connected
to the system formed a more formal user's group called the
"Community of SIRDO Users" and began to meet on a weekly basis.
One community resident, a medical doctor, also began to train
eight young men from the group to maintain the system and collect
garbage. Given the large number of users at this site, and the
greater distances from the houses to the chamber, this division
of labor was more attractive than the communal system used in
Merida. The users agreed to pay these young people a small wage,
based on the Mexican minimum wage, for an estimated two to four
hours work per week. In order to cover this expense and start-up
costs for other activities, members agreed to contribute 500
19
pesos aboutt US$3) to the group every two weeks.
Soon the user's group decided to adopt a more formal
organizational structure with elected officers and six
specialized commissions. The General Director and Secretary are
men, the Treasurer is a woman, and each of the six commissions is
the responsibility of one woman. The group also named three
advisors for technical, social, and administrative matters.
These are professional people who live in the experimental block.
Each commission began to develop its own set of activities.
Commission I is in charge of operation and maintenance of the
pilot SIRDO. Its principal task is to supervise the young
trainees who operate the system. Commission II is preparing for
the production and sale of the fertilizer, which has been named
ABOSIRD Tierra Nueva (New Earth). They have spent about US$50
for a two-color, silk-screened logo which will be printed on the
plastic bags in which the fertilizer will be packaged. The
initial plan is to distribute most of the fertilizer to the
families using the SIRDO and to sell the rest to cover their
costs. Already they have been approached by other community
residents who want to buy the fertilizer for their own gardens.
They are also planning a market survey to set an appropriate
price at which to sell their product.
The other four commissions have more long-term objectives
which are expressed by the group's motto: "For a Self-Sufficient
Urban Community." Commission III is in charge of planning
productive activities related to the recycling of plastics, metal
and glass. The group hopes to move towards recycling most of the
neighborhood's inorganic, as well as organic, wastes. As a first
20
step, they consulted an expert in plastics recycling from
Mexico's National University who is experimenting with a
technology to convert waste plastics into useful products such as
the plastic tubing used for plumbing and for construction of
SIRDOs.
Commission IV has the task of developing horticulture
projects. They began by planting a small experimental plot of
carrots, radishes, squash, onions, tomatoes and herbs next to the
chamber. Two biologists from the local university have been
offering their advice, as well as seeds, on a voluntary basis.
The first garden was planted without the use of fertilizer in
order to compare it with later yields. The group now plans to
expand the plots to other areas surrounding the SIRDO. They also
plan to plant fruit trees nearby, beginning with trees that have
already been grown successfully in the area, such as peaches,
pears and avocados. To irrigate these crops, the group is
building a large holding tank for recycled gray waters from the
SIRDO. A pump will be installed to allow year-round irrigation.
The final goal is to have 400,000 square meters of land producing
food for the community's 23,000 inhabitants on a regular basis.
With assistance from biologists, Commission V is developing
plans for future aquaculture projects using treated black waters
from the SIRDO. Plans call for creation of four tanks for the
various stages of water treatment; 6,000 to 10,000 trout will be
raised in the fourth tank. Infrastructure and community training
necessary to operate such a'project is estimated to cost
US$12,000, which must be raised from outside sources. Initially
the fish would be consumed within the community and then
21
hopefully, with increased production, sold for a profit.
The sixth commission has the delicate task of overseeing
waste management in homes and caring for the environment. These
tasks are primarily social and educational. Committee members
oversee the composition of garbage dumped into the SIRDO chamber
and, when necessary, suggest corrections. Another task of this
committee is to contact the 28 families living in the SIRDO area
who are still not connected to the system. They encourage these
families to clarify their views on the SIRDO and either decide to
be connected or waive their rights so that families on nearby
blocks, who have expressed an interest in using the system, may
become users.
All these new activities reflect a greater sophistication on
the part of SIRDO users as to the need for effective public
relations within the community. SIRDO users also have learned
that it is more effective to be open-minded about the
conventional drainage system favored by some community members.
Instead of proclaiming themselves sirdistas, they now advise
neighbors to base their decision on an anlaysis of the relative
merits of the two systems. They are confident that the
conventional system will never be completed due to its high cost
and that the SIRDO will gradually win over community residents as
the income-generating activities take shape and environmental
conditions improve. Within the community there are already about
200 families who wish to have SIRDOs installed on their blocks.
The potential economic return from the SIRDO depends on the
development of productive activities by community members. The
GTA has calculated that 50 to 80 full-time jobs could be
22
generated at the Valley of Mexico pilot site once fertilizer,
aquaculture and agricultural production are well underway. The
cost of producing the fertilizer can be reduced by more than half
if maximal use is made of community labor. The Merida experience
has demonstrated that a kilo of fertilizer that can be sold for
US 70-80 cents costs less than US 5 cents to produce. Materials
costs accounted for only US$250/year to produce four tons of
fertilizer. Given the demand for low-cost fertilizer in all
parts of the world, the economic potential of the system is
evident.
SIRDO users also point out that because of the system there
is more unity and communication among residents of the
experimental block than there had been before. Solidarity has
been fostered by their everyday communal labor, their work on the
commissions and their weekly meetings. The SIRDO also has
increased their awareness of the danger of contamination posed by
the inefficiency of conventional sanitation systems.
The SIRDO and its related activities have greatly increased
women's visibility within the community and their confidence in
handling community affairs. While men continue to dominate
formal decision-making positions in the community, women have
increased their power through informal pressure groups such as
the water commission. Their collective participation has
increased their self-confidence and encouraged them to speak out.
Women represent more than half of the membership of the SIRDO
user's group, they have the greatest involvement in the
day-to-day operation of the system, and they head all the working
commissions created by the users' group. While they have not yet
23
reached the level of confidence and independence achieved by the
women in Merida, the women of the Valley of Mexico are expanding
their community participation through involvement with the SIRDO.
III. Reflections on the SIRDO Experience
Six years after the first pilot experience in Merida was
installed, the SIRDO has achieved national credibility in key
sectors of the government, the press, and the academic community.
The nation's three principal newspapers carried out a support
campaign called "Operation SIRDO" beginning in June, 1984, that
focused on the system as the solution to problems of
environmental contamination in Mexico's cities. Scientists from
a variety of government and academic institutions have been drawn
into activities like plastics recycling, aquaculture,
horticulture, and testing potential uses for the fertilizer, as a
result of GTA's educational work that convinced them of the value
of applying their technical knowledge to the problems of
low-income communities. The GTA has also enlisted the aid of
allies within the government in order to neutralize opposition to
the system from other official sectors. In Merida, for example,
the new state governor and federal-level housing officials have
put pressure on regional authorities who were opposed to the
system with the result that the state government has made a
commitment to share with the community the costs of some needed
repairs to the system.
By 1984 the GTA was building SIRDOs not only for grass-roots
groups, but also for the government and the private sector. The
state oil company, PEMEX, intends to build ten SIRDOs a year in
its new developments in order to protect the environment from
24
contamination. The federal urban development and ecology
agencies are beginning to work with the GTA in several
communities and would like to build as many SIRDOs as possible
during the next year. University students will be trained to
work with communities where these systems are installed. Current
initiatives include creation of workers' cooperatives to produce
parts for the SIRDO, thus providing employment for community
people who have participated in construction of the systems. The
parts would be sold to both the public and private sector.
With growing acceptance of the SIRDO come new challenges for
GTA. As responsibility for operating and maintaining the systems
is gradually handed over to the community, GTA's role becomes one
of outside technical advisor. The process is part of GTA's goal
to design a system that would alter the relationship between
user, technology and the environment in order to foster
collective action as an alternative to passive dependence on
governments that often lack either the will or the resources to
respond to local demands. In both Merida and the Valley of
Mexico, this transfer has entailed periods of tension as
community members begin to assert their independence by reaching
decisions contrary to the advice of GTA. After these
experiences, GTA modified its strategy of technology transfer in
order to ,.duce the potential for technical mistakes. Before
introducing the system, GTA now forms a community Health
Committee and a Production Cooperative to be responsible for
decisions related to the system's productive activities. A small
number of community persons are trained to operate and maintain
the system within the technical limits established by GTA.
25
The two pilot experiences in Merida and the Valley of Mexico
demonstrate some of the problems and potential involved in
introducing new technologies. Community acceptance of an
innovation like the SIRDO involves overcoming technical, social
and political obstacles. The first SIRDO was not designed with
the idea that it would be managed mainly by women and young
people. However since women and young people generally take
charge of household waste disposal and sanitation and are less
apt to be employed outside the community, they are the ones who
are able to devote the necessary time to operating and
maintaining the system. Their roles need to be anticipated in
the design of a system so that they can carry out day-to-day
activities without outside assistance. (For example, some parts
of the original system had to be reduced in weight so that women
and children could handle them). The potential of the system to
generate income through the sale of fertilizer (and eventually
fruits, vegetables and fish) may offer women a greater
opportunity for economic independence.
Women's active participation in waste management can improve
their influence in community affairs. In Merida, the need to
operate and maintain the SIRDO, and to handle fertilizer
production, gave rise to a new cooperative structure dominated by
women. This structure developed a strong sense of solidarity
among women who had not previously known one another and
increased their independence and confidence in dealing with
husbands and other family members. They consciously acknowledge
the importance of the SIRDO in providing this new source of
collective and individual strength. In the Valley of Mexico, a
26
strong pre-existing cooperative structure, dominated by men,
initially impeded women's access to formal decision-making power.
However the SIRDO stimulated the creation of less formal
organizations in which women have expanded their community
influence. Their growing consciousness of the effectiveness of
collective action has spread to other areas of community concern
such as water management. Participation in these activities has
built up women's confidence and strengthened their influence in
community affairs and in relations with outside authorities.
REFERENCES
Birkbeck, Chris
1979 Garbage, industry, and the 'vultures' of Cali, Colombia.
Pp. 161-183 in Ray Bromley and Chris Gerry (eds.), Casual Work
and Poverty in Third World Cities. New York: Wiley.
Elmemdorf, Mary and Patricia K. Buckles
1978 Socio-cultural aspects of water supply and excreta
disposal. Washington, D.C.: The World Bank, Energy, Water and
Telecommunications Department, Public Utilities Notes.
Isto E
1984 A reciclagem vem a tona. 29 August, pp. 52-56.
Legorreta, Jorge
1983 El Proceso de Urbanizacion en Ciudades Petroleras.
Mexico: Centro de Ecodesarrollo.
Monasterio, Fernando Ortiz, Josefina Mena and Angel Parada
1983 Experiencias Tradicionales y Alternativas para el Manejo
de Residuos Urbanos en Zonas de Bajos Ingresos en el Valle de
Mexico. Mexico: "Mujer y Ciudad" working paper.
Schmink, Marianne
1985 Community Management of Waste Recycling: The SIRDO.
New York: SEEDS.
The Tribune
1982 Women and Water The Women and Development Quarterly,
Newsletter 20, 3rd Quarter.
United Nations
1977 Water, women and development. Prepared by the Centre
for Social Development and Humanitarian Affairs of the Department
of Economic Affairs for the U.N. Water Conference, Mar de la
Plata, Argentina, 14-25 March.
Velez-Ibanez, Carlos
1983 Rituals of Marginality: Politics, Process, and Cultural
Change in Central Urban Mexico. Berkeley: University of
California Press.
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