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| Friday, 10 September 2004 |
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Manila fails to learn lessons from garbage tragedy MANILA (Reuters) It's business as usual at Payatas, Manila's largest rubbish dump. Four years after a mountain of garbage collapsed at the open dump, killing 205 people and burying a slum colony ironically called "Lupang Pangako" (Promised Land), thousands still call it home. Despite the overpowering filth and stench, Payatas still remains a sort of promised land for uneducated, unemployed and homeless Filipinos who can turn the waste into quick cash. May came to Payatas 13 years ago after her husband died and she needed a job to feed her three children. She survived the disaster in 2000 and stayed on. "I have to eat," the frail 42-year-old said as she rummaged through the trash, looking for anything that could be recycled. She is one of 4,300 waste pickers thought to live among tens of thousands of slum dwellers in communities on, around and near 6 mountains of open garbage in the city of 10 million people. The money they can make, up to 250 pesos ($4.5) a day, doesn't sound like much, but it is a handsome return compared to the 150 pesos they can expect for less hazardous menial jobs. In the wake of the Payatas disaster, there were bold pledges to clean up open dump sites and find safer areas for the city's refuse. But with the sites expected to reach capacity by the end of 2004, there's still no alternative in sight. Local governments outside Manila have refused to accept the roughly 6,700 tonnes of garbage the capital generates every day. The Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB) is urging President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's administration to intervene. "That's the only viable option available," ADB programme coordinator Richard Ondrik told Reuters. "The national government needs to get involved in persuading the provinces to show that they are responsive to the needs of both Manila and the provinces." Underlying the failure to resolve the garbage crisis are the same problems that help keep 40 percent of Filipinos living on less than $2 a day, in particular corruption and severe spending constraints on the indebted government. The $3.5 billion annual deficit, which trained economist Arroyo has pledged to wipe out in her new six-year term, means that a full third of spending is diverted to debt financing. An ADB study said a lack of transparency and financial accountability accentuated the problem in the Philippines, which has been ranked among the most corrupt countries in Asia. Allegations of local authorities billing for ghost trips by garbage haulers are common. The ADB study showed about 3.5 billion pesos ($63 million) is spent every year to collect and dispose of garbage in Manila. "What I believe many would state is that for the amount of money spent, if the 3.5 billion pesos is the correct figure, one would generally expect a higher level of service," said Nicholas Allen, an ADB consultant who helped conduct the study. Stung by the high-profile disaster, the government enacted into law in January 2001 an ambitious bill aimed at altering age-old practices that contributed to bursting dump sites. But more than three years after the Ecological and Solid Waste Management Act took effect, very little has changed. The government has yet to convert open sites into controlled pits with proper waste control and very few practice mandatory waste segregation. Only 11 percent of refuse is recycled. When the law was enacted, Metro Manila had 14 open dumpsites. Eight have been closed, but the rest have not been converted into controlled sites to conform to international standards, Ondrik said. "Unfortunately, there is no engineered site," said Allen. "These (wastes) are dumped in very, very dangerous conditions." Although few doubt that the thousands of people living off Manila's garbage face health risks, there have been no studies of the effects. But it is not only garbage-pickers who pay the price. Allen's study found that about 25 percent of the waste produced daily is dumped illegally on private land, in rivers or Manila's main bay or is openly burned, worsening the city's choking pollution. Toxic fluids from untreated waste flowing into river systems contaminate fish and drinking water sources, posing another threat to Manila's residents. Officials say kidney and reproductive system damage, skin diseases, circulatory system problems and cancer are among the possible health risks. When parts of Manila were flooded by monsoon rains in August, city officials said garbage tossed carelessly into waterways was partly to blame. |
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