Sri Lanka garbage mountain death toll rises to 10

COLOMBO: The death toll from a collapsed garbage mountain in Colombo has risen to 10 after four children died in hospital overnight from the disaster, authorities said Saturday.

Colombo National hospital spokeswoman Pushpa Soysa said two boys and two girls were among the 10 people confirmed killed following the Friday incident. They were aged between 11 and 15.

Soysa said a total of 21 people were brought to the hospital from Kolonnawa, where the 300-foot (91-metre) high rubbish dump crashed on neighbouring homes as the country celebrated the traditional new year.

“We remain on standby, some people who were pulled out of wrecked homes were brought in overnight,” she told AFP. “Four of them succumbed to their injuries last night.”

Hundreds of troops kept up a search for survivors while two heavy earth moving machines were deployed to clear a path to the worst affected area of the vast dumping ground.

Police said many residents had evacuated their homes before the disaster because heavy rains on the previous day had caused garbage slides and damaged the foundations of many homes.

“We think about 40 homes have been destroyed,” a disaster management official told reporters. “the casualties would have been much higher if most people had not left their homes earlier in the day.”

About 800 tonnes of solid waste is added daily to the open dump, angering residents who live nearby.

Sri Lanka’s parliament was warned recently that the 23 million tonnes of garbage rotting at Kolonnawa was a serious health hazard.

Efforts are underway to build an electricity plant that could transform the solid waste into fuel.