WHEN A WALL of garbage gave way at Cebu City’s Binaliwlandfill this month, killing dozens of workers, it revived memories of a disaster the Philippines had pledged never to repeat.
At dawn on July 10, 2000, a towering mound of waste collapsed at the Payatas dumpsite in Quezon City after days of heavy rain. Homes were buried, fires broke out, and more than 200 people were killed.
The tragedy prompted a national reckoning and led to the passage exactly 25 years ago of the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act, which banned open dumps and ordered local governments to shift to safer disposal systems.
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