Every year dozens of sewer cleaners die in Bangladesh as they dive into putrid drains to clear blockages with a stick or just their bare hands.
They get paid a sad $10 a day at most to swim through the polluted sewers of the overpopulated capital of Dhaka without any protective gear not even a pair of goggles.
The city of 14 million people who suffer from an inadequate drainage system that is made considerably worse by heavy rain, leading to frequent flooding.
The Dhaka City Corporation pays the men, who usually take the risk and do their dirty job shirtless, just $6 – $10 a day to battle the sludge produced in the cramped tunnels criss-crossing the city.
The men who dive have to hold their breath as they dive through human waste and also must deal with poisonous fumes emitted by the sewage.
Many of the divers die every year from drowning and an unknown number of other suffer major health effects from frequent dives.
