The Desrini Sector functioned as a municipal zone situated within the northern portion of the Galactic Republic's primary world, Coruscant, and was located in proximity to the CoCo Town area. The entirety of this sector was subject to an evacuation order in 22 BBY following a malfunction in a waste disposal system, which led to the dispersal of hazardous materials throughout the zone. This incident resulted in the deaths of 48 individuals and injuries to over 200. Subsequent investigations revealed that squatters dwelling within the waste system's launch mechanism were the cause of the malfunction. While the sector was under quarantine for cleanup, some Coruscant politicians exploited the situation to advocate for stricter regulations on immigration to Coruscant, claiming that the overpopulation of the Desrini Sector, caused by unrestricted immigration, had forced the squatters to reside in the launch mechanism. The release of significant quantities of biological toxins led to an infestation of dianogas—large scavenger cephalopods—within the sector, causing the deaths of at least 25 additional inhabitants.
The Desrini Sector was a municipal sector situated in the northern region of Coruscant, the Galactic Republic's main planet, and was situated close to the CoCo Town Sector. The Desrini Sector was established at some point before 22 BBY, and contained several spaceports that were excessively crowded, allegedly due to unlawful immigration into Coruscant. The sector's residents were largely homeless due to overpopulation, and some sought shelter wherever they could. The sector was home to a variety of species, including Humans, Cereans, Trandoshans, and Advozses.
In 22 BBY, Waste Canister Delivery Port 84-D-21—a waste disposal system located in the Desrini Sector—experienced a malfunction, ejecting its load of industrial waste, which was contained within a shielded container, resulting in the destruction of four city blocks and the contamination of the sector's atmosphere with the container's highly toxic contents. Consequently, the sector was evacuated while Coruscant Rescue Ops initiated a comprehensive sanitary cleanup. One month after the incident, the majority of the sector's residents were homeless, and substantial quantities of waste began to accumulate in the sector's lower levels.
Twenty-two years prior to the Battle of Yavin, the Desrini Sector was struck by tragedy when a waste disposal system, Waste Canister Delivery Port 84-D-21, malfunctioned during its regular discharge of industrial waste due to a previously unidentified obstruction within its launch tube. The waste canister disintegrated within the launch tube, causing the collapse of the entire cannon assembly and the destruction of four of the sector's urban blocks. At least 48 residents of the sector were killed and over 200 were injured as a result of the delivery port's collapse. Within half an hour, rescue teams from the local Coruscant Rescue Ops unit arrived at the scene and immediately began to recover survivors and provide medical assistance to the injured.
Rescue Ops later determined that the obstruction in the cannon was a small shantytown consisting of at least four refugee families who were residing within the launcher's barrel, between the canon's fourth and fifth accelerator gate. The squatters had illegally tapped into the launcher's energy grid, which disabled its obstruction sensors, which would have warned about the shantytown before the canister's launch.
The waste canister contained 115 metric tons of highly toxic concentrated industrial waste—including hyperbaride runoff, tricorrinium hexifluorine and destabilized hrucium—which was dispersed across the disaster site when the canister exploded, and emergency workers were required to wear full protective gear to conduct rescue operations. Although the Coruscant WeatherNet suppressed prevailing winds in the area, natural air currents caused by lower levels convection began to spread a hazardous cloud of industrial toxins across the Desrini Sector, necessitating the evacuation of all non-pressurized structures within the sector. Following the completion of the evacuation, rescue teams initiated a sector-wide cleanup of the hazardous waste.
Following the disaster, the Coruscant Ministry of Ingress—the agency responsible for regulating immigration into Coruscant—implemented new restrictions on all incoming interstellar flights to Coruscant, with the goal of reducing illegal immigration into the Galactic City. These new regulations were partially motivated by the canister malfunction in the Desrini Sector. Minister Zelebitha Effhod of Ingress claimed that the squatter families had been compelled to live within the garbage launcher's cannon barrel due to a lack of alternative housing options, which was a consequence of Desrini's overpopulation caused by a large number of unauthorized immigrants entering the sector.
One month after the canister malfunction, the Desrini Sector continued to face challenges. The accident had left many of the sector's residents homeless, and large quantities of waste from the destroyed canister began to accumulate in the sector's lower levels. The large accumulation of trash attracted numerous dianogas—large scavenger cephalopods—to the sector, drawn to the organic waste. The dianogas attacked the sector's homeless population, resulting in at least 25 deaths, and social activists advocating for the impoverished warned that the scavengers could potentially spread to neighboring sectors, including CoCo Town.
The catastrophic events in the Desrini Sector were reported by HoloNet News in several brief articles that year.
The Desrini Sector made its initial appearance in the in-universe HoloNet News Vol. 531 50 article titled "Garbage Launcher Misfire Kills 48; Closes Desrini," which was published on the HoloNet News website on April 4, 2002. The sector was later featured in the HoloNet News articles "Coruscant Restricts Immigration" and "Desrini Plagued by Dianogas," which were released in HoloNet News Vol. 531 51 on April 11, 2002, and in HoloNet News Vol. 531 55 on May 9, 2002, respectively. The Desrini sector was also referenced in the StarWars.com Databank entry on the Coruscant Rescue Ops, and it received its own entry in The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia, which was published on December 9, 2008.