Anguilla Faces the Same Landfill Crisis Year After Year

Despite investigations and warnings, the island continues to tackle fires only when they erupt — not the conditions that cause them.

Anguilla’s Corito landfill has been burning for more than a decade, and the pattern is now impossible to dismiss as coincidence. From the 2013 blaze that smouldered for days and forced residents indoors, to the string of fires recorded between 2018 and 2020 – including six fires in less than twelve months – the island has seen this crisis repeat itself with unsettling regularity. These incidents are not isolated, not unpredictable, and certainly not new. They are symptoms of a waste‑management system that has failed to evolve, despite years of warnings written in smoke.

Each fire follows the same familiar script: emergency crews rushing to contain flames, operations suspended, residents advised to stay inside, and officials launching yet another investigation. Yet the findings rarely seem to translate into long‑term change. In 2013, authorities noted that construction waste had been compacted and no fire was applied at the site, but the landfill still ignited and burned for days. Later fires burned underground, smouldered for weeks, and even affected nearby islands. One blaze reportedly lasted nine weeks. If experience is meant to be the best teacher, Anguilla’s landfill management appears determined not to learn.

The question now hanging over Corito is painfully simple: why isn’t more being done? After decades of recurring fires, the island should have a preventative, modernised waste‑management system – not a reactive one that only mobilises when flames appear. The repeated outbreaks show that Anguilla has been tackling the fires of the moment, not the conditions that cause them. Whether it’s inadequate waste separation, insufficient monitoring, or outdated landfill infrastructure, the root problems remain unaddressed. And each new fire reinforces the same truth: the island is stuck in a cycle of crisis response instead of long‑term planning.

Anguilla should not be shocked when Corito burns – not after fires in 1966–67, 2008, 2009, 2012, 2013, multiple incidents in 2018 and 2019, and six fires in 2020 alone. Shock implies unpredictability; this pattern is anything but. What the island needs now is accountability, investment, and a waste‑management strategy that finally breaks the cycle. Until then, Corito’s flames will continue to rise, and Anguilla will continue to face the consequences of lessons unlearned.

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