Photo credit: Aljazeera
A mountainous heap of refuse collapsed at the largest landfill in Guinea’s capital of Conakry early Sunday, killing 30 people, according to the central government.
AP reports that authorities said that heavy rains, which started at around 2 am, washed over the refuse at Dar Es Salam – the largest landfill in Conakry – and triggered a landslide that buried nearby shacks. A search-and-rescue operation was underway to find survivors. Six people were seriously injured, and several homes were destroyed.
The site, an open-air waste dump and the largest in the city, was designated for closure on Sunday, according to Lt. Col. Balde Mamadou Bailo, the sanitation officer for the military engineering battalion.
Locals living around the landfill had been given eviction notices, which forced many to leave the area, but many others were still around at the time of the disaster, according to authorities.
Guinea is mineral-rich with huge deposits of bauxite – the largest in the world – and also has iron ore, gold, diamonds and minerals. However, according to the World Bank, 43.7 % of the population lives below the national poverty line.
