Atienza orders probe on Rizal landfill's wall collapse

MANILA, Philippines - Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Lito Atienza has ordered an investigation into the collapse of a portion of the perimeter wall of the 19-hectare sanitary landfill in Rodriguez, Rizal in the midst of non-stop rains last week.

Atienza said he specifically instructed the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) and the National Solid Waste Management Commission (NSWMC) to determine the “real cause” of the border wall’s collapse, which reportedly resulted in garbage cascading down the nearby creek.

Atienza also said he directed the EMB and NSWMC to look into the maintenance system that the sanitary landfill has in accordance with the law.

“Landfills must be organized, monitored and managed well to make sure of environment protection and safety,” he told The STAR.

“I have ordered them to check on the soundness of the facility… to investigate. Because we do not want a repeat of the Payatas tragedy,” he added.

Earlier, a local waste and pollution watchdog called on Atienza to conduct a “full-scale” investigation into the collapse of a portion of the border wall of the Rizal provincial sanitary landfill.

The EcoWaste Coalition pressed Atienza, who also chairs the NSWMC, to uncover the truth behind the incident, which it said “evokes memories of the tragic Payatas garbage-slide” in July 2000.

Romy Hidalgo, of EcoWaste’s task force against dumps and landfills, said the “frightful breach in the boundary wall” of the Rizal landfill raised a number of issues as to the location and operation of the disposal facility.

Hidalgo wondered how such an incident could happen to a much-trumpeted engineered facility that has received a seal of approval from the DENR and NSWMC.

The development and operating requirements for sanitary landfills are specified under DENR Administrative Order No. 10-2006 or the Guidelines on the Categorized Final Disposal Facilities signed by former DENR secretary and NSWMC chairman Angelo Reyes.