Dozens still missing in Sri Lankan garbage collapse; 30 dead

Law and Order Minister Sagala Ratnayake said the number of people could be between six and 10.

Soldiers were digging with backhoes and shovels, as relatives of the missing pointed out where their houses once stood amid coconut, mango and banana trees.

Those homes now lay in piles of collapsed concrete walls encased in a wall of mud up to 8 metres (25 feet) high and mixed with plastic bags, broken glass and other trash. Bicycles and auto-rickshaws, the three-wheeled vehicles used as local taxis, were crushed or lying topsy-turvy.

In other parts of the dump officials were mapping places that can slide and identifying families that need to be evacuated.

More than 600 of the area’s residents were sheltering in nearby schools, while 11 people were being treated at a hospital for injuries.

One auto-rickshaw driver described a narrow escape. He was returning home with his wife, two sons and daughter when they stepped out from his rickshaw and his daughter said the ground seemed to be moving beneath her feet.

“There was a strong wind from the side of the dump, and my daughter shouted that the mound is splitting,” Rasika Sanjeewa, 41, said Monday. “Suddenly, one slice of the mound came crashing down. The whole area was shaking.”

Debris blocked them from fleeing immediately, but eventually they found a way out, Sanjeewa said. When they arrived later at their friends’ home, where they had planned to celebrate the new year, they found it buried and their friends dead — a mother and daughter who worked as daily wage labourers.

The prime minister vowed over the weekend to shut down the dump, which has absorbed much of Colombo’s garbage over several years amid heavy construction and renovations in the capital. As the garbage piled up, it began threatening the nearby homes, prompting residents to stage regular protests while complaining of health hazards.

“These people did not choose to live next to a dump. But they brought the garbage in and made this place horrible,” said rickshaw driver Dilip Mirmal, 34, whose home was spared while those surrounding were completely subsumed. He counted 23 of his neighbours among the dead.

“This is a government-made disaster,” he said. “I have a mix of feelings — of anger, frustration and sorrow. We have been trying to protest and raise these issues, but no one was listening.”

Eranga Jayawardena, The Associated Press

by Canadian Press

Dozens still missing in Sri Lankan garbage collapse; 30 dead

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