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6C Sunday, December 9, 2018
The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com
WORLD
Tangerines
BEN CURTIS I Associated Press
A man walks on a mountain of plastic bottles as he carries
a sack of them to be sold for recycling, Wednesday, Dec.
5, in the Dandora slum of Nairobi, Kenya.
Africa’s solid waste
is growing, posing
a climate threat
BY TOM ODULA
Associated Press
NAIROBI, Kenya -
No one would envy a life
of scavenging in Kenya’s
biggest landfill, but Daniel
Kiarie says he would never
leave it.
Birds circle overhead
and dogs scuffle as the
35-year-old moves through
the filth of Nairobi, intent
on useful finds. Ground-up
garbage, from used hos
pital needles to battered
toys, crunches under his
feet. Thirty pungent acres
stretch out before him
at the center of the city’s
poorest slums.
“This is like any other
job,” Kiarie said. “I would
not leave it for a cozy
office.” In blue overalls, he
oversees a hill of plastics
he has salvaged to sell to
recycling companies. “And
I am not mad.”
As the world meets
again to tackle the growing
threat of climate change,
Africa expects
to suffer the
most from ris
ing tempera
tures. And it is
least equipped
to fight back.
How the
continent will
tackle the
solid waste
produced by
its more than
1.2 billion resi
dents, many
of them eager
consumers
in growing
economies, is a
major question
for environ
mentalists and
governments alike.
Most African countries
lack the resources needed
to process the growing
amount of solid waste,
said Maria Leonor Sales,
a consultant with the Afri
can Development Bank.
Nearly 20 of the world’s 50
biggest dumpsites are on
the continent, according to
Waste Atlas.
On top of that, Africa is
now a dumping ground for
waste from other, devel
oped, countries, U.N. Envi
ronment pointed out in a
report earlier this year.
The fastest-growing
regions for waste gen
eration are sub-Saharan
Africa and South Asia,
where it is expected to
triple and double, respec
tively, by 2050, the World
Bank said in a September
report. By then, the regions
will be producing 35 per
cent of the world’s trash.
Much of the waste in low-
income countries, about 90
percent, is openly dumped
or burned. That contrib
utes to worsening air qual
ity while the poor are most
affected, the World Bank
said.
The burning of waste is a
key contributor to climate
change. In 2016, 5 percent
of global emissions were
generated from solid waste
management, excluding
transportation, the bank’s
report said.
Safe, sustainable solid
waste management could
be an engine for eco
nomic growth, Sales said.
Recycling and innovative
products could create jobs
while addressing social
and environmental issues.
But governments would
have to sign on and recog
nize the value of landfill
pickers like Kiarie and the
roughly 600 others who
join him there every day.
“Perceptions are one
of the main challenges as
people do not view waste
as a resource,”
said Catherina
Schenck, a
professor with
the University
of the Western
Cape in South
Africa who has
researched
waste pickers.
“This includes
the policymak
ers down to the
consumers.”
Transition
ing to a greener
economy and
sustainable
waste man
agement will
require infor
mal workers
like Kiare to become part
of a recognized system,
following health and envi
ronmental guidelines and
receiving stable incomes
and benefits in return.
Experts say recycling
companies then can be
more efficient and have a
guaranteed supply of raw
materials.
Africa has the opportu
nity to unlock at least $8 bil
lion every year in resource
value into the economy by
changing the way we think
about waste, said Professor
Linda Godfrey, an expert
on waste management with
the South Africa-based
Council for Scientific and
Industrial Research.
The African Union has
said member countries
should divert 50 percent of
the waste they produce to
recycling, reuse and recov
ery by 2030. Currently, the
continent recycles only 4
percent.
‘Perceptions
are one of
the main
challenges
as people
do not view
waste as a
resource.’
Catherina Schenck
Professor, University
of the Western Cape
After defeat in Iraq, IS fights
on in last enclave in Syria
BY QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA
AND BASSEM MR0UE
Associated Press
BAGHDAD — A year
after it was routed from
Iraq in a war that left entire
neighborhoods and towns in
ruins, the Islamic State group
is fighting to hang on to its
last enclave in eastern Syria,
engaging in deadly battles
with U.S.-backed forces.
Cornered in the desert
near the Iraqi border with
nowhere to run, the militants
are putting up a fierce fight,
inflicting hundreds of casual
ties among their opponents
and releasing a stream of
beheading videos reminis
cent of the extremist group’s
terrifying propaganda at the
height of its power.
In Syria, the battle for the
area of Hajin has dragged
on for three months, high
lighting the difficulty of
eradicating an extremist
group determined to sur
vive. Across the border, in
Iraq, there is rising concern
that the group may stage a
comeback. IS sleeper cells
have recently launched
deadly attacks against secu
rity forces and abducted
and killed civilians, mostly
in four northern and cen
tral provinces that were
once part of the group’s self-
declared caliphate.
“There is still major dan
ger for Iraq and Syria espe
cially in areas close to the
border when it comes to
Daesh,” a senior Iraqi intel
ligence official said, using
an Arabic acronym to refer
to the extremists. He spoke
on condition of anonymity
because he was not autho
rized to speak to the media
about security matters.
He said IS lost most of the
income it once made from oil
and taxes imposed in areas it
controlled. The group now
relies on selling gold and
other reserves that they had
accumulated after declaring
their caliphate in June 2014.
He said the money is being
used to buy weapons and
finance attacks in Iraq and
Syria.
Another Iraqi intelligence
official said IS has begun
restructuring its command,
relying more on non-Iraqi
commanders after most of its
leaders were killed in coali
tion strikes.
The Islamic State group
once held an area the size
of Britain across vast ter
ritories straddling parts of
Iraq and Syria, running a
so-called caliphate and plan
ning international attacks
from its headquarters in the
Syrian city of Raqqa. Tens
of thousands were killed in
both countries as an array of
local forces, some backed by
a U.S.-led coalition, eventu
ally drove the extremists out
of virtually all the lands they
once held.
Iraq’s then-Prime Minis
ter Haider al-Abadi declared
final victory over the group
on Dec. 9,2017. Two months
earlier, the coalition, work
ing with Kurdish-dominated
fighters known as the Syrian
Democratic Forces, liber
ated Raqqa after a bombing
campaign that decimated
much of the city.
The area that IS still holds
in Syria represents less than
1 percent of the territory
it controlled at its height.
HUSSEIN MALLA I Associated Press
Arab and Kurdish fighters with the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), move to
the front line to battle Islamic State group militants, July 22, 2017, in Raqqa, Syria.
The pocket is home to some
15,000 people, including IS
fighters and their families.
The U.S. military estimates
there are about 2,000 remain
ing IS fighters there.
The SDF launched their
offensive to retake Hajin on
Sept. 10. It has been a gru
eling campaign, with sand
storms and fog at times
grounding coalition aircraft,
allowing the militants to
launch counteroffensives
that have killed hundreds
of SDF fighters. IS has also
taken scores of prisoners and
civilians hostage.
“It is very difficult because
we are in the last stages,
where almost every ISIS
fighter is a suicide belt,”
Brett McGurk, the White
House envoy for the war
against IS, said at a security
conference held recently in
the Gulf nation of Bahrain.
The extremists, besieged
near the border, have no
place to go. They are sur
rounded from the east and
north by SDF fighters while
from the south and west, Syr
ian government forces and
their allies have closed roads
to the surrounding desert.
The Britain-based Syr-
‘It is very
difficult because
we are in the last
stages, where
almost every
ISIS fighter is a
suicide belt.’
Brett McGurk
White House envoy for the
war against IS
ian Observatory for Human
Rights says since the fighting
began nearly three months
ago, 1,616 people have been
killed, mostly fighters from
both sides. It said the dead
include 827 IS gunmen,
481 SDF fighters and 308
civilians.
The fighting is now
believed to be in its final
stages, with SDF fighters said
to have broken IS defenses
and taken the fight into the
town.
The fall of Hajin will end
the group’s hold over any
significant territory in Iraq
or Syria, but sleeper cells
in both countries will con
tinue to stage attacks amid
attempts to regroup. IS affili
ates in Libya, Afghanistan
and Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula
continue to stage regular
attacks.
The group’s savage legacy,
meanwhile, will stay on for
years to come.
Huge parts of Iraq and
Syria are still in ruins, with
little cash and — in Syria’s
case — little international
political will to rebuild.
Emerging from the more
than three years of war, Iraq
estimates that $88.2 billion is
needed to rebuild the coun
try. An international donors’
summit held early this year
in Kuwait gathered pledges
of $30 billion that mainly
came in the form of loans,
but no progress has been
made to fulfil the pledges.
“The biggest problem we
have is the lack of funds,”
said Mustafa al-Hiti, the head
of a government-run recon
struction fund.
“What we spent till now
is about 1.5 percent of what
we need and that came as
loans and donations,” al-Hiti
added.
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