Esther Nalukwago, a 42-year-old mother of twins, fled half-dressed in panic when a torrent of rotting garbage engulfed her home in the Ugandan capital Kampala, in a disaster that has claimed the lives of at least 23 people including children.
“I saw one side of my room collapsing. I dashed out half-naked,” she recounted to AFP on Monday, surrounded by the remains of her home in the city’s northern district of Kiteezi.
“When I was out of the house, shaking out of fear and panic, the surrounding houses were covered by an avalanche of black soil and shortly after people were wailing,” she said.
Scores of rescuers clad in scant protective gear shivered in the morning drizzle as they searched through the fetid landslide, believed to have been caused by recent heavy rainfall.
The death toll rose to 23 on Monday, with the authorities saying previously that the victims included five children.
Unfazed by the stench and oblivious to a clutch of huge Marabou storks scavenging a sack being eaten by maggots, scrap-metal collector Nalukwago gave thanks her twins were at school when the incident occurred.
Others were not so fortunate.
“What happened on Saturday is something that will not be erased from my memory for years to come,” said Isma Mwogezi, who lost his wife and two children.
The 61-year-old told AFP that he had lived in the area for almost four decades, raising 11 children, before the incident cut two of their lives short.
Mwogezi lashed out at President Yoweri Museveni’s promise of five million Ugandan shillings (about $1,300) to bereaved families for each fatality.
“No amount of money can compensate a life lost,” he said.
Museveni, who also offered $270 for each of those injured in the landslide, clarified that the money was to help the families rather than compensate for the loss.
Standing near where his two-bedroom home once was, an angry Mwogezi still blamed authorities.
“Why wait to compensate people instead of preventing deaths?”
“The government should own up and accept the mistake,” said local community leader Abubaker Semuwemba Lwanyaga, echoing Mwogezi.
The 36-acre (14-hectare) landfill was established in 1996, according to local media, and takes in almost all garbage collected across Kampala, about 1,500 tonnes a day.
But from its creation, residents had worried about the site, Lwanyaga told AFP, with many living there since childhood.
“We complained about the stench from rotting garbage, our water sources were contaminated, people were falling sick due to filth and pollution,” he said.
“The government should have relocated people from here if they wanted to put a landfill and compensated them, and not waited for a disaster to happen,” he said.
In January, Kampala mayor Erias Lukwago had warned that people working and living nearby faced numerous health hazards due to overflowing waste from the Kiteezi dump.
Lukwago was downcast as the search and rescue operation continued, admitting the focus was shifting.
“We don’t expect any survivors at the moment,” he said.