Treating Gaza’s rubbish issues

Construction of the new Sofa landfill for solid waste in Gaza, 25 October 2021 [Mohammed Asad/Middle East Monitor]

Construction of the new Sofa landfill for solid waste in Gaza, 25 October 2021 [Mohammed Asad/Middle East Monitor]

Construction of the new Sofa landfill for solid waste in Gaza, 25 October 2021 [Mohammed Asad/Middle East Monitor]

Construction of the new Sofa landfill for solid waste in Gaza, 25 October 2021 [Mohammed Asad/Middle East Monitor]

Construction of the new Sofa landfill for solid waste in Gaza, 25 October 2021 [Mohammed Asad/Middle East Monitor]

Construction of the new Sofa landfill for solid waste in Gaza, 25 October 2021 [Mohammed Asad/Middle East Monitor]

Gaza’s landfill site is expanding to accommodate two million cubic metres of waste per day in an effort to meet the enclave’s needs for the next nine years.

The project budget is estimated at $40 million, funded by the World Bank and the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) and the landfill area is 26,000 square metres and 15 metres deep.

Engineer Zuhdi Al-Ghariz, the director of Projects Department at the Ministry of Local Government, told MEMO that the land area for the construction of the new Sofa landfill for the solid waste is about 58 acres. According to Al-Ghariz, the first phase is currently being built on 34.5 acres of the land and includes waste receiving cells, leachate and rainwater lagoons, a maintenance workshop, and an administrative building.

Al-Ghariz added that the new sanitary landfill will benefit the central and southern governorates, as it will absorb about two million cubic meters per day of waste in the new Al-Fukhari (Sofa) sanitary landfill, in the first phase, which is sufficient to receive waste for nine years. He noted that the total landfill area is 235,000 square metres, the area allocated for the landfill units is 85,000 cubic metres, the area of the leachate lagoons is 4,525 square metres, and the area of the rainwater lagoons is 15,500 square metres.

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