When Their City Stopped Collecting Trash, These Young People Built a Waste System From Scratch

When Makur Majeng posted photos of trash-clogged drainage ditches along the White Nile in Juba, the capital of South Sudan, his phone wouldn't stop buzzing. 'How can I help?' one message read. Within hours, 20 young people — many of whom had never met one another before — had pledged to join him that Saturday at Suk Darfur, one of the busiest markets in the city, armed with little more than willpower, trash bags and a few pairs of disposable gloves. The cleanup was sorely needed. When Juba's municipal garbage collection collapsed in March 2023, the streets were left flooded with refuse, choking the White Nile and compounding the ongoing decline of one of the world's most important rivers. The acrid smell of burning plastic filled the air, and waterborne diseases like cholera surged — with UN agencies documenting over 80,000 cholera cases and 1,400 deaths since October 2024. Frustrated by authorities' failure to take action, young volunteers stepped into the void. Majeng and dozens of others launched Save the Nile, a youth-led initiative made possible by seed funding from the National Geographic Society and The Nature Conservancy. The movement has grown far beyond weekend cleanups. Volunteers now organize regular community events via social media, train school students in environmental policy, and pressure local officials to address the waste crisis. They've created the foundations of a desperately needed — albeit informal — waste disposal system. What started with 20 strangers responding to photos on social media has become a model for youth-led environmental action in one of the world's most challenging settings. It's proof that when governments fail, communities can step up — one trash bag at a time.