Ecobreves – COLOMBIA: Dumps Threaten Aircraft

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

BOGOTA, Sep 22 2003 (IPS) - A program to relocate the garbage dumps near the northern Colombian airport of Barranquilla and a citizen education campaign aim to put an end to flight safety problems. At a cost of 542,000 dollars, the initiative is to resolve a sanitary problem and the constant danger of air accidents resulting from scavenger birds getting caught in aircraft turbines.

There are 12 illegal dumps within two km of the airport, although international norms stipulate a distance of at least eight km.

The elimination of these sites will include the participation of government, a concessionary firm and the informal garbage collectors who until now, for small sums of money, pick up household waste and dump it in unauthorized sites.