Manila: Following the death of three children in a "trash-slide" at the height of typhoon Nanmadol last Saturday, local authorities are shifting around 1,500 tonnes of garbage from a collapsed dump site in northern Luzon's Baguio City, the country's summer capital.
Sources said about 1,500 tonnes of garbage from the Irisan dump site are being transported to Capas, Tarlac (in central Luzon), Urdaneta City, Rosales and Malasiqui in Pangasinan (northern Luzon), said National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council chief Benito Ramos.
"Lumber planks and plyboards were used to create pathways on top of the garbage while sacks, shovels and pitchforks were used to facilitate immediate clearing operations at the dump site. Government soldiers, residents, and volunteers who began helping in the operation were given anti-tetanus vaccines," Ramos said.
The three to die were Apolinario Flores, ten, Revillar Flores, 13, and Franco Flores, 15. Their relative, John Flores, was injured and their grandmother Antonia Flores, 68, went missing when the retaining wall of the Irisan dumpsite at Tadiangan village near Kilometre 5 Asin Road collapsed due to heavy rains on Saturday. Victims of the landslide were among 22 who died from typhoon Nanmadol's wrath.
The new destinations of the Irisan dump site garbage are part of the 790 open and 382 controlled dump sites nationwide, according to the National Solid Waste Management Commission.
The garbage clearing operation was decided during a meeting of the Cordillera Regional Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council and Baguio City's local government officials, following complaints from residents, said Ramos.
On Monday, village chief Jerome Biswilen led residents of Asin Road Village and called on Baguio City Mayor Mauricio Domogan to permanently close the Irisan dump site.
Tuba town Mayor Florencio Bentrez said the water that seeped from the dump site has already damaged Tuba town's water supply.
It was also decided to immediately evacuate all illegal settlers who have built shanties below the retaining wall of the Irisan dump site.
