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Global perspective Human stories

FROM THE FIELD: Preventing Ethiopia’s trash from going to waste

Construction workers build gabion structures at the Koshe landfill in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. A total of 162 gabions were built to stabilize the site and control erosion to prevent further landslides.
UN-Habitat/Felix Vollmann
Construction workers build gabion structures at the Koshe landfill in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. A total of 162 gabions were built to stabilize the site and control erosion to prevent further landslides.

FROM THE FIELD: Preventing Ethiopia’s trash from going to waste

SDGs

The rehabilitation of a dumpsite in Ethiopia in which 116 people died following a landslide two years ago, has made the area safer for people working there thanks to support from the UN human settlements agency UN-Habitat. 

Medina Hussein is the store keeper at the Koshe landfill in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. She is in charge of storing the materials needed for the rehabilitation of the site which is implemented through the Fukuoka Method.
UN-Habitat/Felix Vollmann

Hundreds of people have typically collected waste for a living on the site in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, but it has always been a dangerous occupation due to the threat of trash piles collapsing and the intense heat given off by decomposing rubbish. 

Now, UN-Habitat has been working with the city government and Japanese experts, to manage the site in a more secure and sustainable way. 

Read more here about how the Fukuoka Method of waste management from Japan has enabled local people to carry on collecting and selling trash. 

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