Garbage crisis looms in Manila

MANILA, Philippines, July 5 (UPI) -- Manila is facing a garbage crisis, with many dumps already full, and planned 'sanitary landfills' yet to be developed.

According to the authorities, at least seven of Metro Manila's nine dump sites will be filled up this year and the Asian Development Bank has warned that the potential for a waste disposal crisis is high in the Philippines capital, the Straits Times reported Monday.

A law passed in 2000 ordered the closure of open dump sites by this year, leaving the 17 cities and towns that comprise Metro Manila hard-pressed to head off a replay of the crisis that occurred in 2001, when mountains of uncollected garbage dotted almost every other block in the metropolis.

Exposed and located in dense residential areas, the garbage sites generate toxic liquids and contaminants that pose enormous health risks. Environmentalists worry that the lack of disposal facilities could lead to the hasty development of substandard dumps.

A metropolis of 10 million, Metro Manila generates about 15,000 pounds of trash a day. Of these, 1,600 pounds are recycled and 3,300 pounds are dumped illegally in Manila Bay or on private land. The rest is hauled to the city's open dumpsites.