- Title: Libyan conflict leaves rubbish mounds smouldering in Tripoli's streets
- Date: 14th October 2019
- Summary: AL-HADBA DISTRICT, TRIPOLI, LIBYA (OCTOBER 12, 2019) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF PILES OF BURNING RUBBISH AT SIDE OF ROAD (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) LIBYAN HEALTH WORKER, MABROUK AHMED, SAYING: "There are lots of harmful effects. When they set (rubbish) on fire, you cannot stay at the frontyard (of your house), or the hospital. There is a hospital, a pharmacy and a shop in front of the area (where rubbish is dumped). When they set it on fire you can't sit in front of your home. The smoke even gets inside the house." VARIOUS OF RUBBISH PILED AT SIDE OF ROAD / CARS PASSING (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) LIBYAN HEALTH WORKER, MABROUK AHMED, SAYING: "I'm keeping an eye on them (people dumping trash). If I don't keep an eye from eight in the morning until midnight they dump their rubbish in the street. I do that so they don't dump the trash or set it on fire." VARIOUS OF PILES OF TRASH ABU SLIM DISTRICT, TRIPOLI, LIBYA (OCTOBER 12, 2019) (REUTERS) PILES OF TRASH AT ABU SLIM TEMPORARY LANDFILL SITE VARIOUS OF RUBBISH PICKERS COLLECTING REUSABLE ITEMS FROM TRASH RUBBISH (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) SUPERVISOR AT ABU SLIM SITE, ORABY MOUSSA, SAYING: "The landfill can no longer receive more rubbish. As you can see, the rubbish is piling up high and we've pressed it down. We stopped (receiving more deliveries) in Abu Slim area. But as you know, rubbish is everywhere in Tripoli and citizens come (to dump trash) and we send them back." TRACTOR AND RUBBISH PICKERS AT LANDFILL SITE VARIOUS OF TRACTOR MOVING PILES OF TRASH (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) SUPERVISOR AT ABU SLIM SITE, ORABY MOUSSA, SAYING: "The road leading to the landfill of Sidi al-Sayih is closed because of the war and trucks cannot go there to avoid any harm. We're packing the rubbish down now to have more space. Currently, it (the landfill) is full." VARIOUS OF RUBBISH PICKERS WORKING AT SITE RUBBISH VARIOUS OF BIRDS AT SITE (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) RESIDENT, IBRAHIM BOUZAID, SAYING: "This is a big issue. There are nasty smells, germs, insects, microbes. It's a big issue and now it's become unmanageable." TRACTOR MOVING TRASH BUILDINGS / PILE OF TRASH VARIOUS OF PILES OF TRASH (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) RESIDENT, IBRAHIM BOUZAID, SAYING: "There are cases of people suffering from respiratory illnesses. I know many cases, I can even bring their IDs, even children. At night, there is the rubbish and the sewage both right next to each other, (the smell moves) with the wind's direction, people cannot even open the windows." VARIOUS OF PILES OF TRASH TRUCK MOVING PAST TRASH TRACTOR MOVING TRASH MAN WALKING PAST TRASH
- Embargoed: 28th October 2019 12:14
- Keywords: Libya rubbish rubbish in Tripoli landfills in Tripoli Tripoli conflict in Libya
- Location: TRIPOLI, LIBYA
- City: TRIPOLI, LIBYA
- Country: Libya
- Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace
- Reuters ID: LVA001B12LETX
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:Mabrouk Ahmed says he has to keep watch into the night to stop people dumping their rubbish on the wide street that runs in front of his home in the south of Libya's capital, Tripoli.
A few hundred metres away, next to the concrete supports of an unfinished bridge, mounds of trash piled higher than the passing cars smoulder by the roadside.
The build-up of rubbish, which residents say reached unprecedented levels in recent weeks before easing slightly, reflects the steady decline of public services in a city cut off from its hinterland - and largest landfill site - by a six-month-old military offensive.
Since eastern-based forces led by Khalifa Haftar launched a campaign to capture Tripoli in early April, it has become impossible to access the city's main landfill site in Sidi al-Sayih, about 50 kilometres (31 miles) south of the centre.
City authorities started depositing waste from across Tripoli at a transit point in the Abu Slim district.
When it started overflowing, officials tried to cut down the intake, causing an accumulation of rubbish on the streets of many neighbourhoods.
In response, people have put up signs threatening violence or making religious invocations to stop the rubbish dumping.
Others place plastic water containers and tyres on pavements near their shops or homes, or cordon them off with plastic tape.
"Backward people: don't dump your rubbish here," read one sign in Al-Hadba, the district where Ahmed, a 38-year-old health worker lives.
Despite ongoing, sporadic fighting on the city's outskirts, life in central Tripoli continues largely as before. Some rubbish trucks and street sweepers are at work, and roads in some wealthier neighbourhoods are clean.
But infrastructure in the city of three million has been gradually ground down by intermittent conflict and political paralysis ever since Libya's 2011 uprising.
The internationally recognised government in Tripoli, hamstrung since its inception in 2016 by rejection from rivals in the east and powerful local armed groups, is fighting for survival.
An influx of tens of thousands of people displaced by the current battle has further strained services, shutting some schools and driving up rents.
Trucks now unload at the Abu Slim site by driving up onto a 25-metre high mountain of rubbish. As new deliveries arrive rubbish pickers -- mainly African migrants with rags wrapped round their faces to counter the stench -- dive in to scavenge for plastic, cardboard and metals. But the rest stays.
The dump adjoins blocks of flats where people have to keep windows shut against toxic fumes, said resident Ibrahim Bouzaid, who had gathered about 500 signatures calling for the waste to be moved.
(Production: Ayman Sahely, Mai Shams El-Din) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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