Unauthorized landfill in Addis Ababa leads to people's deaths

Problems

• Catastrophe in Addis Ababa

  Tragedy struck in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. A landslide occurred at a garbage dump. The landfill had been located on the outskirts of the capital for more than 50 years. According to preliminary data, 113 people died. A few dozen are still missing. Most of the dead are women and children. The landslide occurred over a large area, so authorities said it is possible that the number of victims will increase. 
  
  "In addition, several makeshift structures and concrete buildings were buried under piles of debris due to the incident," said Addis Ababa Mayor Diriba Kuma. - At least 37 people were rescued and sent for treatment".
  
  It is noted that the landfill has been a dumping ground for garbage from the capital for more than 50 years. In recent years the dumping has stopped, but recently garbage trucks have started coming to the dump again. "The resumption of dumping at the landfill in recent months is most likely what caused the landslide," said local resident Assefa Teklemahimaton. - In the past two years there have been similar landslides at the landfill, and two or three people have fallen victim.

• The cause of landfills in Addis Ababa

  Such dumps most often arise due to the lack of places for temporary waste storage and improper waste collection organization in private sectors and in gardening areas. For the city budget of Addis Ababa, these kinds of dumps create an additional burden for their elimination.
  
  The problem of environmentally sound disposal of production and consumption waste is among the pressing regional environmental issues in Ethiopia. The economic inability to dispose of garbage is accompanied by an increasing amount of domestic and industrial waste deposited in numerous landfills and dumps, often unauthorized. Unauthorized landfills cause many environmental problems, the consequences of which are not fully calculated and predictable. Technological progress is creating an increasingly complex and diverse composition of household and industrial waste, which is poisoning the environment for humans and other living beings with high concentrations of a wide range of chemical elements that accumulate in the soil and water and have a devastating effect on the biosphere. Technogenic substances entering the natural environment are included in migration flows in the form of solutions, gases, suspensions, and suspensions. The main reason for the growth of unauthorized dumps is the poor coordination of interaction between the participants of the waste management process and the lack of an established accounting and control system.

• Environmental damage

  Waste is essentially a mixture of waste substances with different properties. Some materials are chemically inert, others decompose without additional external influence, while others actively react with other compounds.
  The products of the results of the described reactions become toxic liquids, poisonous, explosive, and fire-hazardous gases, and a large amount of released thermal energy. Thus, waste deposits are often heated up to 50-100 °C. Under certain conditions, they can spontaneously combust. The products of combustion become even more dangerous substances. If an unauthorized landfill is not located on a properly equipped site, but in the woods or fields, a major fire can break out.
  Toxic compounds enter the atmosphere, soil, and groundwater. In the future, this can lead to the death or severe disease of local flora and fauna, and increase the risk of dangerous pathologies in humans.
  
  Unauthorized dumps take the place of sources of impact on all components of the environment.  An important feature of this source of environmental pollution is its spatial and temporal variability, both in volume and composition.
  The organization of unauthorized dumps today continues to be one of the most common types of environmental offenses in Addis Ababa, and it is difficult to overestimate their danger.