10.03.2025

Death Toll Rises To 30 In Uganda Garbage Dump Landslide

At least 30 people are feared dead, while nearly a hundred others remain missing after several villages in Uganda's eastern area were hit by landslides. Officials believe the death toll could rise further. Over a dozen have been injured and at least 40 households have been completely buried. The landslide occurred in Uganda's Bulambuli district about 300 Kilometres east of the capital Kampala. At least 6 villages in the district have been affected. The landslides come from Uganda, which has been hit by unusually heavy rainfall since October. The government has issued a national disaster alert amidst the flooding and landslides. Dead bodies aged between 3 and 33 years were retrieved from the garbage dump site located in Kawempe, one of the five divisions of Kampala. At least 39 people have been registered missing following a landslide in the affected three villages of Lusanja, Kitetika, and Kiteezi, according to the preliminary findings released by the registration committee that was set up to register all the affected people, houses destroyed or buried. Many of them eked out a living by washing and selling whatever discarded items they found that still had value - anything from fishing nets to plastic bottles, glass jars and the components of old electronic devices. A blame-game erupted after the fatal collapse, with Kampala's city council and central government accusing each other of negligence, while some of the dead still languished under tonnes of rubbish without the dignity of a burial. Youth unemployment is at crisis levels in Uganda, and there are many who often risk their health and abandon their dreams just to make a living. Many of them come here to the dump in the morning, collect polythene bags, take them for washing and sell them which would make 10,000 shillings [equivalent to $2.70 a day. The Kiteezi landfill was built in 1996, with financing from the World Bank, to provide a single, major depository for solid waste generated by Kampala. On the northern edge of the city, it now covers 15 hectares (37 acres) - an area the size of more than 22 football pitches - with its stench spreading further still.
Credit: AP