On January 8, a mountain of debris collapsed at a 15-hectare landfill in the village of Binaliw, Cebu City, where over 100 sanitation workers were on site. Officials say the tragedy may have been partly caused by recent earthquakes and heavy rains affecting soil stability.
Cebu City councillor Joel Garganera, chair of the city’s environmental committee, has blamed poor waste-management practices, as cited by local media. The city has declared a day of mourning as rescuers continue to struggle to extricate victims from the site amid a risk of further collapse.
The Philippines’ second-largest metropolis had faced a serious garbage problem for years, Joel Lee, executive director of Movement for a Livable Cebu, a citizens’ empowerment initiative, told This Week in Asia.
The Binaliw landfill served as an alternative to the Inayawan landfill, the latter of which was designated the official site in 1998 to last for seven years.
However, the Inayawan landfill continued to operate until 2017, when the Supreme Court ordered its closure and rehabilitation. This caused Cebu City’s trash, which totals 500 to 600 tons daily, to be diverted to other sites such as Binaliw.