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Friday 29 January 2016

Angola's Chaotic Capital Chokes Under Mountains of Trash


Luanda (AFP) - For half an hour, the passenger boat sat stranded off the coast of Angola's seaside capital Luanda.

Streams of rubbish clogged its engine as it attempted to enter the port of a city sinking under the weight of several months of uncollected trash that blocks traffic and exasperates residents.

"Look at this traffic jam, it's because of the bins overflowing onto the road," said motorist Joao Mampuya, 52.


"The rubbish is taking up one of the two lanes and it's been there so long."

The sprawling city, home to 6.5 million people, has become an open-air dumping site.
Luanda has for years been a chaotic urban mess. It figures among the world's most expensive cities and the overwhelming majority of residents live in squalid shantytowns with no sanitation or electricity.

The company responsible for removing the trash says it has not been paid by the local authorities, as the country -- the second largest oil producer in Africa -- buckles under the collapse of the oil price.

Renowned independent journalist Rafael Marques de Morais questioned the company's management.

"Did the money disappear? Did they hire incompetent operators? Are the local governments not working? What about the central government?" he wrote in a local independent paper.
Whatever the answer, the rubbish continues piling up all over the city, filling up sidewalks outside both luxurious mansions and the shacks of the slums.


During the rainy season, the streets become flooded, forming stinking, black rivers that carry the decaying waste into stagnant ponds.

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