Updated

Updated · Yahoo! Voices · Aug 23

Conakry Landfill Landslide Kills 22 as Heavy Rain Buries Shacks Near Closure Site

Updated

Updated · Yahoo! Voices · Aug 23

Conakry Landfill Landslide Kills 22 as Heavy Rain Buries Shacks Near Closure Site

Q: Despite a deadly 2017 collapse and recent eviction notices, why were families still living next to Guinea's most hazardous waste dump?

Families were still living beside the Dar Es Salam dump because eviction orders and closure plans had not translated into a complete, enforced relocation before the collapse. Authorities said notices had been issued and many people had left, but others remained in homes and shacks at the edge of the landfill when the rains triggered the slide. The reporting points to a familiar urban pattern: people were occupying informal housing next to a hazardous site that had long been known as dangerous, including after a 2017 collapse that killed 10 people. Yet the dump continued operating for years, rubbish kept accumulating, and the settlement around it was not fully cleared. Officials said the site was only due to close on the very day of the disaster, suggesting action came late. The evidence available does not show that residents ignored a clearly completed relocation program. Rather, it suggests a gap between warning and implementation. Residents had been told to leave, but authorities were still promising after the disaster that “remaining families” would be relocated elsewhere, indicating that safer alternative housing had either not been fully arranged, not been enforced, or not yet been taken up by everyone. In short, families remained because Conakry’s most hazardous dump stayed active despite earlier deadly warnings, while eviction and closure measures were incomplete when the heavy rains hit.

3 articles · Updated · Yahoo! Voices · Aug 23

At least 22 people were killed early Sunday when a landslide tore through the Dar Es Salam landfill in Conakry and buried nearby shacks, with rescuers still searching for survivors.
Heavy rain that began around 3 a.m. washed over the refuse and triggered the collapse, according to Guinea's civil protection service.
Authorities said the capital's largest landfill had been scheduled to close Sunday, and residents around the site had received eviction notices, though many were still present when the slide hit.
Minister Dienabou Touré said the remaining families would be relocated, underscoring the wider risk around a dump that has already seen deadly landslides.