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width:655px; border-bottom: 1px #C4D5E3 dotted; height:40px; Xbackground-color:#ab0; "> <div style="float:left; height:35px; Xbackground-color:#005;"> <p><em>Posted by <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170427111231/http://blogs.agu.org/members/dr-dave/">Dave Petley</a></em></p> </div> <div class="addthis_single" style="float:right; Xbackground-color:#f55; padding-top:6px; height:35px;">  <div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a class="addthis_button_google_plusone" g:plusone:size="medium"></a> <a class="addthis_button_facebook_like" fb:like:layout="button_count"></a> <a class="addthis_button_tweet"></a> <a class="addthis_counter addthis_pill_style"></a> </div> <script type="text/javascript">var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true};</script> <script type="text/javascript" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170427111231js_/http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=mjvinas"></script>  </div> <div style="clear:both;"></div> </div> <div class="entry" style="margin-top:15px;"> <h5>The Meethotamulla garbage landslide: an avoidable tragedy</h5> <p>The number of victims recovered from the <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170427111231/http://blogs.agu.org/landslideblog/2017/04/16/meethotamulla-1/">Meethotamulla garbage dump landslide</a> in Sri Lanka is now <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170427111231/http://www.dailymirror.lk/article/Meethotamulla-tragedy-missing-death-toll-rises-to--127287.html">28, with at least 30</a>, and <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170427111231/http://www.reuters.com/article/us-sri-lanka-accident-idUSKBN17I0MX">possibly as many as 100</a>, people still missing. Rescue operations continue, although the reality is that it is unlikely that anyone will be recovered alive now. Meanwhile, controversy has developed over the blame for the tragedy. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170427111231/http://www.reuters.com/article/us-sri-lanka-accident-idUSKBN17I0MX">This Reuters report</a> says:</p> <blockquote><p><span id="article-text">The police said they were investigating whether the landslide was natural or man-made. </span></p></blockquote> <p>This is not in question. There is nothing natural about this landslide in any way. The question is not whether it was natural, but whether it was foreseeable (<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170427111231/http://blogs.agu.org/landslideblog/2016/12/15/prediction-1/">note not this is not the same as asking whether it was predictable, as I noted in a post in December</a>). To me the answer is hinted at by this image, published in the <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170427111231/http://www.dailymirror.lk/article/Whose-garbage-is-it-anyway--125418.html">Sri Lanka Daily Mirror in 2014</a>, showing the dump at that time, but an investigation is needed to answer the question properly:</p> <div id="attachment_23357" style="width: 610px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="size-full wp-image-23357" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170427111231im_/http://blogs.agu.org/landslideblog/files/2017/04/17_04-Sri-Lanka-5.jpg" alt="Meethotamulla garbage dump" width="600" height="399" srcset="https://web.archive.org/web/20170427111231im_/http://blogs.agu.org/landslideblog/files/2017/04/17_04-Sri-Lanka-5.jpg 600w, https://web.archive.org/web/20170427111231im_/http://blogs.agu.org/landslideblog/files/2017/04/17_04-Sri-Lanka-5-300x200.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px"/><p class="wp-caption-text"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170427111231/http://www.dailymirror.lk/article/Whose-garbage-is-it-anyway--125418.html">Sri Lanka Daily Mirror</a> image of the Meethotamulla garbage dump, taken in 2014.</p></div> <p>.</p> <p>Compare this image with this one, published by <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170427111231/http://lankaenews.com/news/2023/en">LankaeNews</a>, showing the aftermath of the failure:</p> <div id="attachment_23369" style="width: 650px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="wp-image-23369 size-full" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170427111231im_/http://blogs.agu.org/landslideblog/files/2017/04/17_04-Sri-Lanka-6-e1492462201175.jpg" alt="Meethotamulla garbage dump" width="640" height="335"/><p class="wp-caption-text">The aftermath of the Meethotamulla garbage dump landslide, fro Lankenews.</p></div> <p>.</p> <p>There is a very interesting <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170427111231/http://groundviews.org/2017/04/15/meethotamulla-a-preventable-tragedy/">article on Groundviews website</a> about the garbage dump, its impact on local residents, and of course the landslide. On the Meethotamulla garbage dump itself, it says of the local residents:</p> <blockquote><p>One thing they all had in common was their distaste for the nearby dump. It was clearly visible from most of the lanes – swarming with flies, with the occasional pig rooting through the garbage. Even if you couldn’t see it, you could certainly smell it. The people I interviewed said the stench was particularly unbearable when it was hot, forcing many to close their windows and doors to avoid the smell.</p> <p>Worse, respiratory diseases and skin rashes were quite common thanks to the proximity of the dump.</p></blockquote> <p>But the article also quotes a 2010 piece in the <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170427111231/http://www.thesundayleader.lk/2010/12/22/colombo%E2%80%99s-garbage-mountain/">Sunday Leader</a> that is deeply worrying:</p> <blockquote><p>[CMC Commissioner Badrani Jayawardena] claimed that this site is the only one of its kind to be maintained. “No where in Sri Lanka is it maintained like this,” she said. “Everyday we put a layer of soil on top of the garbage to seal it. We do it step by step but within five days we get the area covered. The reason it looks like such a huge dump is because of the soil as well.”</p></blockquote> <p>Putting layers of soil on the garbage way well have been wise in terms of containing the odours, but may have been dangerous in terms of the stability of the dump. This sounds to me to be a recipe for creating planes of weakness, increasing the likelihood of failure. The investigation, if done properly, will need to look into this as well.</p> <p>In the short term, in addition to completing the recovery operation, there is an urgent need to start to make the dump stable. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170427111231/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colombo#Climate">The peak summer rainy season in Colombo is in May</a>, with an average of almost 400 mm rainfall over the month.</p> <br class="clearfloat"/> </div> <p class="postmetadata">Posted in: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170427111231/http://blogs.agu.org/landslideblog/category/landslide-report/" rel="category tag">landslide report</a> <span class="comments"> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170427111231/http://blogs.agu.org/landslideblog/2017/04/17/meethotamulla-garbage-dump/#respond">No Comments/Trackbacks »</a> </span></p> </div> </div> <div class="navigation"> <div class="alignleft"> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170427111231/http://blogs.agu.org/landslideblog/2017/04/16/meethotamulla-1/" rel="prev">← Previous Post</a> </div> <div class="alignright"> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170427111231/http://blogs.agu.org/landslideblog/2017/04/18/almaluu-bulak-landslide-1/" rel="next">Next Post →</a> </div> <br class="clearfloat"/> </div> <div id="respond"> <div class="comment-avatar-box"> <div class="avb"> <img alt="" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170427111231im_/http://2.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=50&d=mm&r=g" srcset="https://web.archive.org/web/20170427111231im_/http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=100&d=mm&r=g 2x" class="avatar avatar-50 photo avatar-default" height="50" width="50"/> </div> </div> <div class="comment-content"> <h3 id="reply" class="comments-header"> Leave a Reply </h3> <p id="cancel-comment-reply"> <a rel="nofollow" id="cancel-comment-reply-link" href="/web/20170427111231/http://blogs.agu.org/landslideblog/2017/04/17/meethotamulla-garbage-dump/#respond" style="display:none;">Click here to cancel reply.</a> </p> <p class="alert"> You must be <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170427111231/http://blogs.agu.org/landslideblog/wp-login.php?redirect_to=http%3A%2F%2Fblogs.agu.org%2Flandslideblog%2F2017%2F04%2F17%2Fmeethotamulla-garbage-dump%2F" title="Log in">logged in</a> to post a comment. </p> </div> </div> </div> </div>  </div> <div id="sidebar"> <div class="social"> <span class="connect-name">Connect with Dave:</span> <span class="icons"> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170427111231/http://www.twitter.com/davepetley" target="_blank"><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170427111231im_/http://blogs.agu.org/landslideblog/wp-content/themes/agu-buddypress/images/social-rev/twitter.png" width="25" height="25" alt="Twitter"/></a> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170427111231/http://blogs.agu.org/landslideblog/feed" target="_blank"><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170427111231im_/http://blogs.agu.org/landslideblog/wp-content/themes/agu-buddypress/images/social-rev/rssfeed.png" width="25" height="25" alt="RSS Feed"/></a> </span> <br class="clearfloat"/> </div>   <div id="text-3" class="widget widget_text"><h3 class="widgettitle">About Dave</h3> <div class="textwidget"><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170427111231im_/http://blogs.agu.org/landslideblog/files/2010/10/headshot_petley_sm.jpg" class="alignright bio-pic"/> Dave Petley is the Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research and Innovation) at the University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom. 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id="recentcomments"><li class="recentcomments"><span class="comment-author-link">Charlie</span> on <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170427111231/http://blogs.agu.org/landslideblog/2017/04/09/papamoa-1/#comment-214229">Papamoa: a brilliant video illustrating the mobility of landslides</a></li><li class="recentcomments"><span class="comment-author-link">fab tahiti</span> on <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170427111231/http://blogs.agu.org/landslideblog/2017/04/09/papamoa-1/#comment-214224">Papamoa: a brilliant video illustrating the mobility of landslides</a></li><li class="recentcomments"><span class="comment-author-link">lallatin</span> on <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170427111231/http://blogs.agu.org/landslideblog/2017/04/05/mocoa-debris-flow-2/#comment-214218">Mocoa debris flow: analyses of the event</a></li><li class="recentcomments"><span class="comment-author-link">Brett Gilley</span> on <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170427111231/http://blogs.agu.org/landslideblog/2017/04/09/papamoa-1/#comment-214217">Papamoa: a brilliant video illustrating the mobility of landslides</a></li><li class="recentcomments"><span class="comment-author-link">fab tahiti</span> on <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170427111231/http://blogs.agu.org/landslideblog/2017/03/31/point-dume-1/#comment-214214">Point Dume: an interesting new landslide video from California</a></li></ul></div> </div> </div> <script type="text/javascript"> jQuery("#tabber_widget-3-content ul").idTabs(); </script> </div><div id="categories-2" class="widget widget_categories"><h3 class="widgettitle">Categories</h3><label class="screen-reader-text" for="cat">Categories</label><select name="cat" id="cat" class="postform"> <option value="-1">Select Category</option> <option class="level-0" value="548">acadenic opportunity  (1)</option> <option class="level-0" value="584">Art  (18)</option> <option class="level-0" 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