The Government of Japan this Friday offered machines for the safe management of solid waste at the Hulene dump, the largest in the country and where in February 2018 16 people were buried to death.

"With the receipt of this equipment, we are now better positioned to ensure the operation of the Hulene dump in a safe and less expensive way," said the mayor of Maputo City, Eneas Comiche, during a symbolic ceremony to receive the material.

The donation consists of four excavators and two backhoes, equipment that will allow the dump to save about 13 million meticais that were spent monthly to rent this type of machinery, according to the mayor of the Mozambican capital.

The support "will allow the resources spent up to now to be directed to other interventions of equal importance," added the mayor.

In the early morning hours of February 19, 2018, a portion of the capital's largest garbage dump, with the height of a three-story building, collapsed due to heavy rain and fell on several substandard homes in the surrounding neighborhood. Sixteen people died at the site, seven of whom were children.

Since the incident in 2018, municipal authorities have been receiving various support for waste management, with emphasis on initiatives supported by the Government of Japan itself, but the closure, budgeted at about $110 million, according to data from that year, still has no date set.(Lusa)