Juba Youth Build New Trash System After City Quits

Twenty young strangers showed up to a trash-filled market in Juba with garbage bags, gloves, and a shared mission to save their city.

When South Sudan's capital city halted all garbage collection in March 2023, mountains of trash flooded the streets and poured into the White Nile. Plastic bags, medical waste, and rotting food created an unbearable stench and triggered a cholera outbreak that has killed 1,400 people since October 2024.

Makur Majeng refused to accept this as normal. He posted photos of trash-clogged drainage ditches on social media, and his phone exploded with messages from people asking how they could help.

Within hours, 20 volunteers met him at Suk Darfur market for their first cleanup. That single post sparked Save the Nile, a youth-led movement that has now mobilized 150 volunteers across Juba.

Over the past year, the group has removed more than 300 kilograms of solid waste from the river and surrounding neighborhoods. Seed funding from National Geographic Society and The Nature Conservancy helped turn frustration into organized action.

James Deng, 23, remembers the skepticism when they started. "People would ask, 'Why should we do this? Isn't it the government's job?'" Now his neighbors feel pride in the work and ask when the next cleanup will happen.

The volunteers face real obstacles. Government permit processes stall their efforts, and bureaucratic hurdles require showing up day after day until officials finally act.

The Ripple Effect

What started as picking up trash has grown into something bigger. Mary Kaku John joined to clean her neighborhood but discovered she was building a movement that changes how people live and care for each other.

The cleanup crews have become platforms for connection in a city divided by conflict and crisis. Strangers who met through social media posts now work side by side, training students in environmental policy and pressuring local officials to address public health threats.

Dr. Kediende Chong, who leads South Sudan's preventive health services, confirms that accumulated garbage directly contaminates water sources and attracts disease-carrying flies. The youth volunteers aren't just making streets prettier—they're fighting a public health emergency that the government abandoned.

Majeng says the movement's real value isn't measured in kilograms of trash removed. "People care. They just need a platform to act," he explains.

After each cleanup, dozens more messages arrive asking how to join the next one, and new neighborhoods invite the group to their streets. The collective frustration that once felt paralyzing has transformed into the fuel that powers change.

Young people in Juba are proving that when institutions fail, communities can build their own solutions one cleanup at a time.