2017 Koshe landslide

On 11 March 2017 a landslide at the Koshe Garbage Dump on the outskirts of Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa killed 115 people.[1] Koshe (alternatively spelled Quoshee or Repi), derived from the Amharic word for "dirty," had hundreds of people living in unincorporated communities beneath the 50 year-old garbage dump's unstable mounds. Both shanty houses and concrete structures were built in Koshe by residents attracted to the area's cheap cost-of-living and availability of recyclables to collect for income. Destabilized by constant human interaction, a segment of one of the garbage mounds collapsed during the evening onto one of Koshe's communities.

2017 Koshe landslide
2017 Koshe landslide (Ethiopia)
Date11 March 2017
LocationKoshe, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
CauseLandslide from garbage piling
Deaths115 [1]

Landslide

The landslide occurred Saturday evening at 20:00 as many people were inside of their homes.[1] A large garbage mound collapsed onto a neighborhood of about 150 people, sliding into the community with enough force destroy brick and concrete structures as well as shanty houses.[2]

Garbage landslides are particularly deadly because buried victims are often quickly suffocated by landfill gases like methane and carbon dioxide, in addition to temperatures within decomposing mounds easily reaching 140 °F (60 °C) or higher.[3] Six excavators were hired by authorities to clear away rubble in the search for survivors or victims[4] Emergency officials rescued 37 people in the immediate aftermath of the landslide, but struggled to reach dozens more buried beneath the black dirt and debris.[4] Despite the inhospitable environment, another man was rescued from beneath the collapsed mound two days after the slide. Officials redeployed excavators from across Addis Ababa to help search efforts.[5]

The garbage landslide killed at least 115 people and left dozens of others missing.[6] Speculation by locals in the immediate aftermath blamed the landslides on new garbage dumping in the area after a several-year cessation,[4] and bulldozers used in construction of a nearby biogas plant for packing down and shaking the area's dirt, possibly destabilizing the garbage mounds in the process.[6]

Government Response

The response to the landslide by Ethiopia's government underscored public outrage over the impoverished conditions of Koshe, prompting policy changes in housing and construction.[7] Ethiopia's Communications Minister Negeri Lencho announced the creation of investigative committee had been created to determine the cause of the landslide.[1] 56 families were moved to temporary government housing in Koshe's Nifas Silk Sub-City and Kolfe Keranio Sub-City as part of resettlement efforts with plans to eventually permanently resettle them.[8] Additionally, plans were made to convert the disaster site into an open-air park.[9] But Koshe's makeshift communities remained populated when another landslide struck in June 2019, killing an elderly man.[10]

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See also

2017 Meethotamulla landslide

2015 Shenzhen landslide

References
  1. Ahmed, Hadra; Fortin, Jacey (2017-03-20). "As Trash Avalanche Toll Rises in Ethiopia, Survivors Ask Why". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-07-03.
  2. "Buried in Ethiopian dump landslide: a young man and his dream". Reuters. 2017-03-19. Retrieved 2019-07-03.
  3. Trautmann, Nancy (1996). "Compost Physics". Cornell Composting.
  4. Meseret, Elias (12 March 2017). "46 killed, dozens missing in Ethiopia garbage dump landslide". Associated Press. Retrieved 3 July 2019.
  5. Meseret, By Elias. "Death toll in Ethiopia landfill collapse rises to 113". chicagotribune.com. Retrieved 2019-07-05.
  6. Pappas, Stephanie (12 March 2017). "Koshe Disaster: What Causes Garbage Landslides?". Live Science. Retrieved 5 July 2019.
  7. Gardner, Tom (3 May 2017). "Ethiopia's deadly rubbish dump landslide sparks landrights battle". Reuters. Retrieved 26 June 2019.
  8. "Landslide at Ethiopia garbage dump kills dozens, injures scores | DW | 12.03.2017". DetuschWelle.com. 12 March 2017. Retrieved 2019-07-17.
  9. "Ethiopia to turn site of deadly landfill collapse into park". News24.
  10. "Ethiopia: garbage dump landslide at koshe in Addis Ababa claimed life again". Borkena.com. 10 June 2019. Retrieved 2019-07-03.
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