Sri Lanka's garbage dump deaths rise to 20

The deaths from the collapse of a garbage dump in Sri Lanka rose to 20 on Sunday, the disaster management centre said.

According to the centre, residents of over 130 houses in the location have been advised to evacuate for fear of more garbage collapsing.

There will be no more dumping of garbage at Meetotamulla, just outside Colombo, following the accident on Saturday, Xinhua news agency quoted a government official as saying on Saturday.

Deputy Foreign Minister Harsha de Silva said the problem ran for decades, perhaps as long as 20 years, and finally led to the collapse of a part of the garbage mountain.

"Anyway, no more garbage will be dumped at this site," he said.

He said that it was unfortunate that even though payments had been made for those families under risk of landslides to move out, some had not done so and stuck around.

They had been advised to leave two days ago, he complained.

--IANS

py/vt