Latest news with #rubbishdump
BBC News
a day ago
- General
- BBC News
'Not contaminated' designation of Arnold Fields to be reviewed
A council will need to reassess its decision not to call a perennially burning rubbish dump "contaminated".Havering Council's decision was challenged in the High Court on 17 June by Clean the Air in Havering, a group set up to tackle the fires at Launders Lane in landfill site, on Arnolds Field, has caught fire more than 100 times since 2019, sending smoke into homes, the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) leader Gillian Ford said: "The site belongs to the landowners and it is their responsibility to make it safe – we are ready to work with them to solve the problem." 'Summer of hell' Justice Nathalie Lieven ruled the decision not to designate the land as contaminated by Havering Council in July 2024 as "premature and unlawful".She also found the town hall misunderstood the law by failing to consider smoke as a potential contaminant under contaminated land rules. The council has said its options are "limited".Ford added: "We are now reviewing the detail in the ruling. One thing that is clear is it has asked us to reconsider our decision on whether Arnolds Field is 'contaminated land' or not."Despite the landowner's claims that they're trying to 'improve the site for the local community', the fact remains that they have not yet submitted a formal planning application, and we have seen no evidence to suggest they are serious in finding a solution." Ruth Kettle-Frisby, one of three local mothers leading the campaign, said residents had reported "constant coughing and stinging and irritated eyes," and had been forced to "close all windows during this hot weather"."This month, Rainham residents have reported their understandable distress as they enter 'another summer of hell', with smoke already entering nearby schools," she added. Emily Nicholson, from the law firm Mishcon de Reya, who represents the campaign group Clean the Air in Havering said: "This is the first judgment that we are aware of which deals with assessment under the Contaminated Land Guidance, and it clarifies an important point on smoke being able to be assessed as a contaminant linkage for the purposes of the contaminated land regime. "It also makes clear that where health impacts come from specific sporadic events, such as fires, decisions must be made based on evidence of the impacts of those events."
ABC News
10-06-2025
- Health
- ABC News
Timor-Leste's largest rubbish dump is causing a 'national' health problem
The smoke from burning waste gets so thick at Delfina Martin's home in Timor-Leste, she and her children struggle to breathe. But she says it's not the only way the country's biggest rubbish dump — only 300 metres from her house — damages her family's health. "During the rainy season the children have stomach aches, fever, gastroenteritis," she says. "My mother also suffered from tuberculosis and was treated at the clinic, but in 2014 she died." Rubbish from the capital Dili, home to about 300,000 people, is transported and dumped in the 23-hectare landfill, about 12 kilometres west of the city. Unable to find another home, Ms Martin has lived near the rubbish dump in Tibar, a long-established residential area, for more than 30 years. Flies come into her house from the rubbish dump, spoiling the family's food, she says. Ms Martin is one of many residents who fear the rubbish dump is wrecking their health. Her neighbour, Miranda Dos Santos, says the smoke from burning waste has weighed heavily on her. "I have regular coughs, fevers and stomach pain, and then I contracted [tuberculosis]," she says. "I underwent treatment at the clinic and took medication for six months." Timor-Leste's government responded to residents' concerns by vowing in 2012 to relocate the rubbish dump. But Ms Martin says despite the promise, nothing has happened. "Hospital garbage is also thrown here, people do not bury anything," she says. Waste disposal has been one of Timor-Leste's most visible problems. With scant waste management infrastructure and services, it has mainly disposed of rubbish by dumping and burning at disposal sites, a 2023 analysis from the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) found. SPREP's study also found no landfills or dump sites in Timor-Leste were up to "modern" standards of waste disposal that minimised their impacts on the environment. Researchers found many households and businesses were illegally dumping and burning their waste. Tibar's rubbish dump, which began operating in 1982, is the only controlled landfill in Timor-Leste. This means it is managed with some level of government oversight. Still, the smell of waste there can be overwhelming, Ms Dos Santos says. "Sometimes garbage from the trucks falls on the road, but [garbage collectors] are not interested in picking it up," she says. More than 1,800 people have been treated for acute respiratory infections at the Tibar medical centre over the past year — at least 10 times the national rate. Timor-Leste's National Director of Health covering the Tibar area, Manuel Albino, says the health impacts of the dump are a "national" problem. "In terms of public health, the communities in Tibar are at severe risk from the garbage that comes from the capital," he says. Mr Albino says along with acute respiratory infections like pneumonia, it has caused other common illnesses in the area including diarrhoea. Nuno Vital Soares, Director of Timor-Leste's Laboratory National Hospital, says the high rates of illness in Tibar are undoubtedly because of substandard water and pollution from the dump. "The water consumed can have a negative impact on pregnant women. It can be seen from the respiratory tract," he says. "If the water is contaminated with some chemicals or microbes, there is no treatment for it properly, even if its percentage is small." The Timor-Leste government says it is aware of the problems, and is trying to address them with new technology and waste disposal practices aiming to reduce contamination. "Since 2022 until today, we have stopped burning garbage, started reducing the amount of waste," Domingos Godinho, Director of Water, Sanitation and Environment Services at Dili Municipality, says. He says it uses a new system that prevents rubbish impacting the surrounding environment, including spreading a geomembrane — a large waterproof tarp — along the ground to stop rubbish from contaminating water and soaking into the soil. But Mr Godinho says the government has abandoned the plan to relocate the rubbish dump because it is too expensive. "The government saw the high cost and decided to still maintain the Tibar landfill. So now we deploy this big, new project." But Tibar residents say last month, rubbish started burning once again at the rubbish dump. Mr Godinho says "unknown people" had burnt waste at the site, but the government has reactivated security at the site to stop it. "The government guarantees that people will not burn garbage any more," he says. Environmental experts say something needs to change, to protect residents' health. Local environmental researcher Augustu Almeida da Silva says there is a need for a solution involving both the government and the community. And he says it is urgent. "If it is not resolved, the consequences can reach a point where the whole of Timor will be like a garbage dump," he says. For now, the rubbish trucks continue to hurtle past Ms Martin's home. She says she just wants to see action that would protect her family.
