Bayakou (trade)
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A bayakou is a sanitation worker who works to empty the fecal sludge out of pit latrines in Haiti, especially in larger cities, such as Port-au-Prince.[1] The word bayakou comes from Haitian Creole.[2][3] Bayakou are subjected to social stigma for their work in manually emptying septic tanks and pit latrines.[4]
The more general term used for this kind of undignified practice, particularly in India, is "manual scavenging". Proper emptying of pit latrines is part of a city-wide fecal sludge management concept.
Port-au-Prince, with close to 3 million residents, is one of the largest cities in the world without a sewer system.[5] Sinks, showers and toilets have no connection to a central sewage treatment plant.[6] Most of the city uses septic tanks and pit latrines.[5] Port-au-Prince finally opened its first sewage treatment plant, Morne a Cabrit, in 2012 with a second, unfinished plant mostly abandoned.[6]