Tunisia"s poorest towns left to shoulder burden of hazardous toxic landfill web sites | Simon Speakman Cordall

A refuse dump in Tunisia. The overall health implications of this kind of web sites, which frequently incorporate chemical waste, have raised issues. Photograph: Jeremy Graham/Alamy

Salah Darghouth’s aggravation is visible. “You see that man working on the ninth floor,” says the adviser to Tunisia’s sustainable growth ministry, pointing at a labourer on the half-constructed tower block opposite. “He harasses me. Every single day I observe him and all the other individuals throw their refuse on to the street below – concrete, litter, every little thing.”

Across Tunisia, with the dust of revolution beginning to settle, refuse looms large in the public conversation. Litter, especially plastic bags, has come to dominate the country’s famously dramatic landscape. The problem is felt by all citizens, but none encounter it more acutely than these living up coming to the straining landfill websites.

Ridha Trabelsi, 45, a shopkeeper who lives in the modest Tunis suburb of el-Attar, is a case in stage. “Would you like to reside here?” he asks, gesturing in direction of close by Jbel Borj Chakir, Tunisia’s biggest landfill web site and a source of expanding exasperation. “They explained they were going to shut it last year, but they haven’t. It’s nevertheless right here and it is only obtaining larger.”

The influence of landfills on this kind of areas is difficult to overstate. In 2011, right after the Jasmine revolution, it was the landfill websites at Djerba, Enkhila (near Nabeul), Oued Laya (close to Sousse), Agareb (near Sfax), and the country’s only hazardous waste-treatment plant, at Jradou, that bore the brunt of local residents’ fury.

All had been closed, most of them temporarily, as a end result of violence. Jradou stays shut, and it is unclear where its waste is being handled. Strategies to reopen the Djerba website have triggered far more violence.

In el-Attar, the stench of rubbish chokes the air it sticks in your throat and permeates your clothing. Trabelsi’s son, eight-year-previous Mohamed, is asthmatic. Respiratory sickness is rife.

“When you build a landfill, you create it for a specific time period,” says Morched Garbouj, an environmental engineer and president of the SOS BIAA environmental group. “Right here at Jbel Borj Chakir, that time period ended in 2013. At that level, it need to both have been closed or, at the least, working at about ten% to 20% capacity.”

According to Darghouth, no determination has been taken on the prolonged-phrase potential of Jbel Borj Chakir. “We’re taking delivery of all around two,000 tonnes of waste each and every day. That has to go someplace … We’re just dealing with almost everything on a day-to-day basis even though we perform to implement a bigger strategy.”

“1 of the issues here is that we don’t know what variety of waste we’re dealing with,” says Garbouj. “Elsewhere, waste is separated, here it all will get dumped collectively – chemical, industrial, family and health-related.” Residents and those who make their living scavenging the dump have reported locating blood bags and foetuses in the refuse at Jbel Borj Chakir, a claim denied by Agence Nationale de Gestion des Déchets, which manages waste on behalf of the environment ministry.

“I did not just see them [the diverse types of waste], I dealt with them,” says Kamel Marouani, a former refuse employee. “Chemical, health care, every thing.”

“One of the troubles with all the various types of waste is the leachate it generates [the liquid created at the base by the compressed refuse],” says Garbouj. “Leachate is extremely toxic, so there are stringent controls about how it should be treated and disposed of. Even so, simply because no 1 understands what’s in it, no one understands how it need to be handled.”

Marouani, who was diagnosed with lung cancer in August 2012, worked at Jbel Borj Chakir for 10 years, the previous 5 for a French company, Pizzorno, a single of 3 contractors that handle landfills for the Tunisian government. One particular of his tasks was to work in the 10 leachate basins that surround Jbel Borj Chakir. He was necessary to wade by way of the often chest-high, reeking, black leachate – constructing dams or clearing away the thick foam that forms on the surface of the basin.

SOS BIAA estimates that the value of transporting and disposing of waste at Jbel Borj Chakir was about $ 110-$ 125 (£65-£75) a ton, in contrast with the equivalent cost in New York of $ 86. This was in spite of drastically reduced overheads. Trucks dumping at Jbel Borj Chakir pay Pizzorno $ 15 for every single ton of waste deposited in return for the firm’s experience in managing the web site. Offered that, on an common day, about three,000 tons of waste is deposited, that equates to a day-to-day income stream of $ 45,000. The costs of trucks and labour are billed to the Tunisian government.

In 2011, Pizzorno was the subject of a complaint by the post-Arab spring government’s Commission of Investigation on Corruption and Embezzlement in excess of its dealings with President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali’s regime. On 15 March, Pizzorno’s five-yr contract with the Tunisian government expired. No choice has been taken on a achievable successor. Pizzorno, which continues to handle the internet site on a caretaker basis, declined to comment on any of the factors raised in this report.

Desta Mebratu, deputy director of the UN Atmosphere Programme’s regional office for Africa, stated: “Disposal in sanitary landfills is the last alternative that need to be deemed … Tunisia is 1 of the 1st African nations that established a national programme on waste minimisation and cleaner production. This programme has led to reduction of a generation of industrial waste and reduction of pollution.”

In el-Attar, minor of this matters. Kids carry on to perform near the landfill website. According to SOS BIAA tests, the local water provide – like all the water inside a 5km radius – continues to be contaminated by fine particles, nitrates and even hefty metals from the dump. Trabelsi seems at the mountain of refuse that dominates the landscape for miles. “We have sick outdated folks. Our youngsters are sick. We can’t continue.”

Tunisia"s poorest towns left to shoulder burden of hazardous toxic landfill web sites | Simon Speakman Cordall

Revealed: the fattest towns and cities in England

Copeland in west Cumbria is the fattest neighborhood authority region (75.9%). Other regions where folks are risking their wellness incorporate Blackpool (72.1%), Milton Keynes (72.5%), County Durham (72.5%), Fenland in Cambridgeshire (72.four%), Bolsover in Derbyshire (72.five%), East Lindsey in Lincolnshire (73.8%), Doncaster in South Yorkshire (74.4%) and Sedgemoor in Somerset (73.4%).

Professor Kevin Fenton, director of wellness and wellbeing at Public Well being England, mentioned: ”Many neighborhood authorities are previously working challenging to reduce weight problems amounts and these new information will assist all neighborhood areas check their progress in tackling these lengthy-standing issues.

”People who are overweight or obese have an improved risk of establishing kind two diabetes, heart condition and certain cancers.

”Excess excess weight can also have an effect on self-esteem and psychological wellness. Total wellness troubles connected with being overweight or obese cost the NHS above £5 billion every 12 months.

”There is no silver bullet to minimizing obesity it is a complicated issue that needs action at personal, household, neighborhood and nationwide levels. We can all perform our part in this by eating a healthful, balanced diet plan and becoming more energetic.”

Percentage of obese or obese people, by regional authority

Adur 62.2%

Allerdale 66.5%

Amber Valley 69.%

Arun 66.eight%

Ashfield 69.6%

Ashford 67.4%

Aylesbury Vale 64.five%

Babergh 66.4%

Barking and Dagenham 63.five%

Barnet 55.six%

Barnsley 70.5%

Barrow-in-Furness 67.%

Basildon 71.seven%

Basingstoke and Deane 63.four%

Bassetlaw 69.2%

Bath and North East Somerset 55.seven%

Bedford 60.9%

Bexley 66.one%

Birmingham 64.%

Blaby 66.5%

Blackburn with Darwen 67.9%

Blackpool 72.1%

Bolsover 72.5%

Bolton 60.one%

Boston 69.9%

Bournemouth 58.7%

Bracknell Forest 66.2%

Bradford 67.seven%

Braintree 68.2%

Breckland 66.7%

Brent 54.3%

Brentwood 67.%

Brighton and Hove 49.two%

Bristol, City of, 59.1%

Broadland 67.three%

Bromley 65.%

Bromsgrove 64.9%

Broxbourne 70.two%

Broxtowe 64.four%

Burnley 63.6%

Bury 68.two%

Calderdale 66.three%

Cambridge 54.3%

Camden 50.one%

Cannock Chase 62.five%

Canterbury 54.two%

Carlisle 68.four%

Castle Point 72.eight%

Central Bedfordshire 69.1%

Charnwood 59.2%

Chelmsford 62.4%

Cheltenham 60.two%

Cherwell 63.two%

Cheshire East 61.2%

Cheshire West and Chester 68.5%

Chesterfield 67.seven%

Chichester 66.two%

Chiltern 60.five%

Chorley 69.1%

Christchurch 57.2%

City of London 61.9%

Colchester 64.five%

Copeland 75.9%

Corby 70.2%

Cornwall 69.eight%

Cotswold 62.7%

County Durham 72.five%

County of Herefordshire 66.8%

Coventry 56.5%

Craven 65.7%

Crawley 66.%

Croydon 62.one%

Dacorum 64.4%

Darlington 62.9%

Dartford 68.1%

Daventry 67.3%

Derby 64.one%

Derbyshire Dales 62.five%

Doncaster 74.four%

Dover 63.two%

Dudley 70.2%

Ealing 57.three%

East Cambridgeshire 65.%

East Devon 61.3%

East Dorset 64.three%

East Hampshire 63.5%

East Hertfordshire 65.four%

East Lindsey 73.eight%

East Northamptonshire 69.%

East Riding of Yorkshire 67.7%

East Staffordshire 71.6%

Eastbourne 64.six%

Eastleigh 67.9%

Eden 68.eight%

Elmbridge 56.7%

Enfield 64.2%

Epping Forest 63.one%

Epsom and Ewell 55.six%

Erewash 69.2%

Exeter 52.8%

Fareham 64.8%

Fenland 72.four%

Forest Heath 65.1%

Forest of Dean 66.9%

Fylde 69.1%

Gateshead 61.9%

Gedling 67.9%

Gloucester 65.3%

Gosport 72.9%

Gravesham 65.9%

Fantastic Yarmouth 68.5%

Greenwich 64.4%

Guildford 55.2%

Hackney 48.seven%

Halton 70.two%

Hambleton 67.three%

Hammersmith and Fulham 49.seven%

Harborough 70.three%

Haringey 59.%

Harlow 66.%

Harrogate 64.7%

Harrow 59.%

Hart 61.%

Hartlepool 68.five%

Hastings 65.3%

Havant 67.eight%

Havering 63.three%

Hertsmere 61.two%

Substantial Peak 57.6%

Hillingdon 67.2%

Hinckley and Bosworth 69.6%

Horsham 63.six%

Hounslow 62.eight%

Huntingdonshire 69.one%

Hyndburn 67.5%

Ipswich 65.one%

Isle of Wight 64.9%

Isles of Scilly 64.four%

Islington 53.six%

Kensington and Chelsea 45.9%

Kettering 69.eight%

King’s Lynn and West Norfolk 70.3%

Kingston on Hull, City of 60.2%

Kingston upon Thames fifty five.1%

Kirklees 61.7%

Knowsley 67.three%

Lambeth 51.eight%

Lancaster 58.2%

Leeds 62.2%

Leicester 57.%

Lewes 69.3%

Lewisham 61.2%

Lichfield 66.seven%

Lincoln 57.6%

Liverpool 67.2%

Luton 59.%

Maidstone 66.two%

Maldon 70.%

Malvern Hills 60.three%

Manchester 62.seven%

Mansfield 70.five%

Medway 66.1%

Melton 64.%

Mendip 65.seven%

Merton 58.three%

Mid Devon 64.one%

Mid Suffolk 67.six%

Mid Sussex 62.seven%

Middlesbrough 68.four%

Milton Keynes 72.five%

Mole Valley 62.five%

New Forest 68.six%

Newark and Sherwood 64.eight%

Newcastle upon Tyne 60.3%

Newcastle-under-Lyme 63.4%

Newham 56.eight%

North Devon 64.1%

North Dorset 64.%

North East Derbyshire 67.2%

North East Lincolnshire 66.2%

North Hertfordshire 60.%

North Kesteven 65.5%

North Lincolnshire 70.one%

North Norfolk 68.three%

North Somerset 61.9%

North Tyneside 70.1%

North Warwickshire 67.9%

North West Leicestershire 69.%

Northampton 63.7%

Northumberland 71.9%

Norwich 57.8%

Nottingham 60.seven%

Nuneaton and Bedworth 64.five%

Oadby and Wigston 62.one%

Oldham 69.6%

Oxford 55.9%

Pendle 67.seven%

Peterborough 65.5%

Plymouth 60.%

Poole 57.6%

Portsmouth 57.9%

Preston 56.2%

Purbeck 69.4%

Reading through fifty five.three%

Redbridge 55.four%

Redcar and Cleveland 70.9%

Redditch 65.9%

Reigate and Banstead 64.%

Ribble Valley 64.4%

Richmond on Thames 47.6%

Richmondshire 63.two%

Rochdale 68.6%

Rochford 71.3%

Rossendale 69.one%

Rother 63.9%

Rotherham 65.3%

Rugby 65.three%

Runnymede 62.eight%

Rushcliffe 58.3%

Rushmoor 59.6%

Rutland 65.6%

Ryedale 73.seven%

Salford 63.three%

Sandwell 66.three%

Scarborough 71.one%

Sedgemoor 73.4%

Sefton 68.7%

Selby 71.%

Sevenoaks 65.three%

Sheffield 59.9%

Shepway 66.%

Shropshire 62.five%

Slough 64.1%

Solihull 63.8%

South Bucks 64.5%

South Cambridgeshire 64.seven%

South Derbyshire 68.4%

South Gloucestershire 59.2%

South Hams 60.9%

South Holland 72.2%

South Kesteven 68.2%

South Lakeland 65.8%

South Norfolk 61.two%

South Northamptonshire 68.eight%

South Oxfordshire 60.five%

South Ribble 66.one%

South Somerset 60.seven%

South Staffordshire 69.five%

South Tyneside 68.2%

Southampton 64.eight%

Southend-on-Sea 64.four%

Southwark 56.three%

Spelthorne 63.four%

St. Albans 59.6%

St. Edmundsbury 66.%

St. Helens 67.5%

Stafford 69.6%

Staffordshire Moorlands 70.%

Stevenage 62.7%

Stockport 65.9%

Stockton-on-Tees 63.six%

Stoke-on-Trent 66.five%

Stratford-on-Avon 65.7%

Stroud 60.four%

Suffolk Coastal 61.6%

Sunderland 68.9%

Surrey Heath 68.one%

Sutton 62.five%

Swalee 68.8%

Swindon 70.four%

Tameside 69.two%

Tamworth 70.seven%

Tandridge 62.9%

Taunton Deane 65.two%

Teignbridge 59.five%

Telford and Wrekin 70.2%

Tendring 69.8%

Test Valley 66.6%

Tewkesbury 69.3%

Thanet 68.four%

Three Rivers 63.9%

Thurrock 70.8%

Tonbridge and Malling 65.two%

Torbay 66.eight%

Torridge 63.four%

Tower Hamlets 47.2%

Trafford 59.7%

Tunbridge Wells 59.four%

Uttlesford 63.four%

Vale of White Horse 63.%

Wakefield 69.six%

Walsall 68.9%

Waltham Forest 54.6%

Wandsworth 52.two%

Warrington 70.%

Warwick 62.seven%

Watford 57.eight%

Waveney 66.%

Waverley 59.9%

Wealden 63.%

Wellingborough 70.two%

Welwyn Hatfield 52.seven%

West Berkshire 65.five%

West Devon 63.five%

West Dorset 59.6%

West Lancashire 63.one%

West Lindsey 68.six%

West Oxfordshire 62.four%

West Somerset 61.seven%

Westminster 52.6%

Weymouth and Portland 61.3%

Wigan 65.3%

Wiltshire 61.6%

Winchester 58.five%

Windsor and Maidenhead fifty five.9%

Wirral 66.4%

Woking 60.5%

Wokingham 57.four%

Wolverhampton 69.eight%

Worcester 65.3%

Worthing 61.4%

Wychavon 70.eight%

Wycombe 66.3%

Wyre 70.9%

Wyre Forest 63.5%

York 58.4%

Revealed: the fattest towns and cities in England