If there exists a model of inhumane life, the profession should be that of a “frog” working for the city government of the National District (ADN). For five thousand pesos a month, Luciano Lara, Martin Pimentel Done, Juan Antonio Suarez, Luis Catalino Arias, Geronimo Mateo Mateo, Martin Rosario Batista and Hipolito Reyes Vargas submerge themselves in the catchment basins of the capital’s drainage system in order to clean out the refuse that uncaring citizens allow to go down the drains when it rains. They do this with picks and shovels and buckets. They dress in shirts, short pants, rubber boots and a cap, no gloves or masks, no special suits. Down there, they deal with plastics, cardboard and papers. But there is an also fecal material, parts of dead animals, dirty sewer water, chemicals flushed from businesses and companies, and all the bacteria and parasites that flourish in the dank environment down in the sewers.
A long article in Diario Libre describes how these “frogs” operate in brigades of three or four plus a foreman who oversees the work. Every day they take turns to go down into the catchment basins and then follow the routine. Usually, the “frog” inside the drain removes the refuse with a shovel, but sometimes they find solids that require a pick in order to break them up. Often the area is so narrow that they have to use buckets to get the refuse out. At 11 on Friday morning at the corner of Nicolas de Ovando Avenue and Albert Thomas, Luciano Lara, 50, is wolfing down his breakfast: a piece of bread. Lara was resting because the day before it was his turn in the drain. “Today it is the little guy’s turn,” he says and points with a finger to a new one in the groups that includes Miguelo, Martin and Fe.
“At times, you have to kneel down in order to get the garbage out; you have to get in there almost on your stomach, face down. There is little air. You get thirsty, you get cramps. There are birds, cockroaches and rats. And you don’t want that water to get on you,” says Pinentel Done, 65, who has worked as a “maco” (or frog) for the city for seven years. Before that he sold fruit. Martin Pimentel Done is being treated for skin problems, and says that he also suffers from cramps because of the position he has to work in. Since the drains are different, some barely allow movement and others are so small that their heads stick out of the sewer drain, so they have to work nearly standing upright.
http://www.diariolibre.com/sociedad/2012/12/10/i363168_los-macos-hombres-bajo-tierra.html