Garbage causes Landslide Tragedy in Uganda
The tragic landslide at the Kiteezi landfill in Kampala, Uganda, was a devastating event.
The loss of life and the impact on the community are heartbreaking. he death toll from a garbage landslide in the Ugandan capital Kampala has risen to 23, a city official said Monday.
People and livestock were buried in mountains of waste at the landfill in the northern Kampala district of Kiteezi on Saturday after a collapse caused by heavy downpours
Over the weekend, excavators churned through the huge rubbish mounds as the desperate search for survivors was watched by wailing and weeping residents.
The incident was described as a “national disaster” by city mayor Erias Lukwago, who warned at the weekend that “many, many more could be still buried in the heap as the rescue operation is ongoing”.
President Yoweri Museveni said he had directed the army’s special forces to help in the search and rescue operation and demanded to know who allowed people to live near such a “potentially hazardous and dangerous heap”.
Devastating mudslides in a remote mountainous area in southern Ethiopia last month killed around 250 people. In February 2010, mudslides in the Mount Elgon region of eastern Uganda killed more than 350 people.
