Lami landfill site

Abstract

The city of Suva in Fiji disposes of most of its waste into the sea – some directly and some indirectly via its landfill site at Lami. This paper describes the scope of the problem caused by the Lami landfill and proposes several possible solutions, including relocation, incineration and recycling schemes.

Nature and scope of the problem.

The population of Suva, capital of Fiji, is about 187,000. Three kilometres west of Suva, adjacent to the sea, is a six-hectare landfill site called "Lami Dump". The site was mangrove until 40 years ago. Today, about 60,000 tones of waste from factories, shops and households are brought in annually (figures from Fiji 1 website). The waste matter has been piled up several meters high. The land lease contract with the owner has expired, and it will soon be impossible to add further waste to the site. There are no pollution prevention measures in place. An offensive odour spreads several hundred metres to surrounding homes and businesses. The site hosts flies, cockroaches and rats, which spread endemic diseases like bacillary dysentery. In addition, high concentrations of toxic substances like arsenic, cadmium, mercury and lead, and persistent organic pollutants (POPs) such as organic acids, are leaching into the soil and seawater around the site, resulting in degradation of marine water quality, destruction of habitat, loss of property values and reduced fish marketability, amongst others (UNEP Report number 174, 2000).

World-wide, levels of these metals in seawater are not high and landfill sites are not the main source of elevated levels. Lead, for example, arrives mainly from rainwater dissolving atmospheric tetraethyl lead, which is an additive to petrol (South et al, 1996). However, the level of pollutants adjoining landfill sites can be high before dispersal takes place and there is also the problem of some marine organisms, particularly shellfish, concentrating metals in their tissues, as the following table illustrates:

Metal	Level in seawater (ppb)	Level in mussel tissues
Cadmium	8 x 10^-2	1 x 10⁵
Lead	2.1 x 10^-3	4 x 10³
Mercury	1 x 10^-3	1 x 10⁵

Table 1. Biomagnification of metals by marine organisms (from South et al, 1996).

Once into the food chain, these toxic metals can damage all the organisms above them in the chain, including humans. These metals can cause neurological disorders, cancer, birth defects and death (UNEP Report number 174, 2000).

Organic acids also leach into the sea from landfill sites. Again, world-wide there will be little effect on seawater because of the combined effects of dilution and buffering – seawater acts as a buffer because of the presence of carbonate. However, there will be localised increases in toxic organic compounds near landfill sites. These compounds can also enter the food chain, to the detriment of organisms that take them in and those above them in the chain.

Part of the problem is that leachate from landfills in the region has not been quantified, although it is thought to be significant. Research is needed simply to understand more about the magnitude of the problem posed by landfills.

Possible solutions to the problems

Closing the Lami Dump and starting a new landfill in a less populated area, further from the sea, would provide a temporary solution to the current problems at Lami, assuming that the risk of contaminating groundwater has been considered. Suva City Council is planning to start a new landfill at a site in the Naboro region, about 20 km west of Suva. However, interviews with local people indicate that they do not want to have the landfill in their area.

A modern incineration plant would create less pollution, but would be expensive and unrealistic for a developing nation, unless it can obtain financial support.

More recycling of household and industrial waste would help. In some countries such as Holland, recycling schemes have been successful in cutting down the problems caused by landfill sites. These have been operated by local governments and such schemes might work in Fiji. In other countries, commercial organisations have been involved in the recycling process. This already happens in Fiji on a small scale as small companies buy and recycle glass bottles, for example.

However, an approach which tackles the problem closer to its source would have more effect. Imports from developed nations have been increasing. Such goods are often wrapped excessively and packed in ‘disposable’ containers. The manufacturers and exporters of these goods act as though small Pacific nations are the same as the large developed nations, with their extensive resources available for waste disposal. If those manufacturers and exporters were made to pay, through extra taxation, for the excess packaging and inclusion of toxins in their products, it could help. This could be combined with incentive schemes, which would reduce such taxes to companies that removed the resulting waste from the country.

The existence of scavengers at the dump illustrates an underlying issue behind many environmental problems in less developed countries, which is poverty. If the causes of poverty could be addressed also, it would go a long way towards solving some of the environmental problems suffered by Fiji and other such countries in the region.

References

Fiji 1 Television website. http://www.fijitv.com.fj/
South, R., Todd H., Coll R., Taylor N., Yeo G., Veitayaki J. and McDowell, R (1996). Introduction to Marine Sciences for the Pacific Islands. Suva, University of the South Pacific.
United Nations Environment Programme Regional Seas Report and Studies Number 174 (2000). Overview on Land-based Pollutant Sources and Activities Affecting the Marine, Coastal and Freshwater Environment in the Pacific Islands Region.