The deadliest garbage dumpsite,Koshe landfill which has killed 200 residents already, has been rehabilitated in order to avoid imminent disaster and the possibilities of toxic gas explosions such as methane.
The Addis Ababa city landfill, a.k.a. Kosheh as served for 50 years experiencing the worst garbage mountain avalanche in 2017 killing so many residents in and around the landfill. Since then under rehabilitation with foreign financial and technical supports, the first phase of the Koshe rehabilitation project has reached its final stages.
City officials, diplomats, waste management experts and the likes have toured the landfill and observed ongoing activities, and how the Japanese well-known Fukuoka-Method (Semi-aerobic landfill structure) for solid waste management has been implemented at the site. The Fukuoka-Method as it is widely known and implemented in countries in Asia and Latin America is a sanitary landfill system for solid waste management.
Toshikazu Mito, the United Nations Human Settlement Program (UN-Habitat) technical advisor, told The Reporter that the project first to sorts out and decomposes waste accumulated at the site. However, since the nature of the garbage in Addis Ababa and the rest of Ethiopia is basically made up of “organic” content that means that it comes with a high volume of moisture; the Fukuoka-Method helps to ventilate and circulate the flow of oxygen into the inner body of the landfill where the absence of air likely causes emissions of toxic and lethal gases.
That process involves installation of vertically perforated gas venting pipes at the bottom of the landfill. In addition to that, leachate or waste water that drains from the dumpsite is controlled with another treatment system implemented in with the installations of a 190 meter underground pipe.
That process eases bad odors and releases toxic fluids from the landfill. A leach ate pond that could hold 180 cubic meters of waste water has been built within the landfill. So far, 52 sets of gas venting pipes have been fitted together with gibbon installations and leachate drainage system.
Apart from that, terracing and reducing the steep slopes of the garbage hill was another measure considered to avert critical slides.
In the first phase of the project, so far, has seen expend USD two million financing from Japan. The solid waste management project has been implemented in a closure of two hectare plot out of the 30 hectare area of the landfill.
Solomon Kidane (PhD), deputy mayor of Addis Ababa City Administration, said that 60 percent of the waste generated from the city can be recycled. However, lack of proper waste management and garbage collection methods have exacerbated the already overcapacity dumpsite by the growing demographic push. The 2017 incident brought together the likes of UN-Habitat to provide both technical and advisory assistances to the government on how it should go about with introducing standardized waste management systems in place.
The completion of phase I of the project required an additional USD 400,000 financing from the government of Japan and the second phase to enter into operations such as capacity building and safety related procedures that will be implemented at the dumpsite.
During the dumpsite visit, a commemorative ceremony for the deceased was planned to be observed until, for reasons which are unclear,Eshetu Lemma, manager of the Addis Ababa City Administration Solid Waste Management Agency, abruptly covered the unveiling of the headstones creating a sore environment among the attendees present at the event.
The Reporter