Payatas (Commonwealth Avenue, Quezon City)(2010-08-23) 2

The Payatas dumpsite is a former garbage dump in the

barangay A barangay (; abbreviated as Brgy. or Bgy.), historically referred to as barrio (abbreviated as Bo.), is the smallest administrative division in the Philippines and is the native Filipino term for a village, district, or ward. In metropolit ...

of the same name in

Quezon City Quezon City (, ; fil, Lungsod Quezon ), also known as the City of Quezon and Q.C. (read in Filipino as Kyusi), is the most populous city in the Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 2,960,048 people. It was foun ...

Metro Manila Metropolitan Manila (often shortened as Metro Manila; fil, Kalakhang Maynila), officially the National Capital Region (NCR; fil, link=no, Pambansang Punong Rehiyon), is the capital region, seat of government and one of three List of metrop ...

, Philippines.

History

The Payatas dumpsite, established in the 1970s, was an open dumpsite in Lupang Pangako in Payatas,

. Prior to this, the area used to be a ravine surrounded by farming villages and rice paddies. People residing in the

Smokey Mountain ''Smokey Mountain'' was the term coined for a large landfill once located in Tondo, Manila. History ''Smokey Mountain'' operated for more than 50 years, consisting of over two million metric tons of waste. The flammable substances on decompos ...

landfill in Tondo,

Manila Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital city, capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is Cities of the Philippines#Independent cities, highly urbanize ...

who worked as scavengers migrated to the Payatas dumpsite after its closure of the former in 1995. Payatas then developed a reputation as the "Second Smokey Mountain", "21st Century Smokey Mountain", "Smokey Mountain Two", "New Smokey Mountain", "Smokey Valley" or the "Modern-day Smokey Mountain". On July 10, 2000, the Payatas landslide caused the deaths of 232 people residing within the landfill, which prompted the passage of Republic Act No. 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000, which mandated the closure of open dumpsites by 2001 and controlled dumpsites by 2006. The dumping ground was immediately closed following the incident by then-President

Joseph Estrada Joseph Ejercito Estrada, (; born Jose Marcelo Ejercito; April 19, 1937), also known by the nickname Erap, is a Filipino politician and former actor. He served as the 13th president of the Philippines from 1998 to 2001, the 9th vice presi ...

, but was reopened weeks later by then-Quezon City Mayor Ismael Mathay Jr. to avert an epidemic in the city due to uncollected garbage caused by the closure. In 2000, a geologist from the

University of the Philippines The University of the Philippines (UP; fil, Pamantasan ng Pilipinas Unibersidad ng Pilipinas) is a state university system in the Philippines. It is the country's national university, as mandated by Republic Act No. 9500 (UP Charter of 200 ...

raised that there might be a possible leakage of leachate from the dumpsite to the La Mesa Dam and Reservoir. The dumpsite is located less than 500 meters from the reservoir itself. In 2004, the landfill was reorganized as a controlled disposal facility and was closed in December 2010. A separate landfill with a stricter waste management policy was established nearby the old open dumpsite in January 2011. Garbage in the dumpsite was dumped on a layer of tarpaulin to prevent seepage of

leachate A leachate is any liquid that, in the course of passing through matter, extracts soluble or suspended solids, or any other component of the material through which it has passed. Leachate is a widely used term in the environmental sciences wher ...

to the groundwater. This dumpsite closed in December 2017 following an Environmental Management Bureau order issued on August 2, 2017, so that it could review the environmental compliance certificate (ECC) of IPM Environmental Services, the operator of the dumpsite. In January 2020, the Quezon City Regional Trial Court ordered the government of Quezon City to pay more than 6 million pesos to the relatives of the Payatas landslide victims.

References

{{Authority control Landfills in the Philippines Quezon City Former squats Squatting in the Philippines

History

See also

References