INSIGHT, May '01 Edition
Cleaning Up Landfills and Reducing Risks:
Local Government Workshop Focuses on Municipal
Solid Waste Management
 A lack of sound
waste-management strategies has caused considerable damage to the environment
and continues to threaten the health of people in developing countries. In many
such nations in the Asia and Pacific Region, open waste dumping is widespread.
Not simply unsightly, open dumping can pose grave risks to human lives, risks
that should no longer be tolerated. In the Philippines, the Payatas dumpsite
collapse in July 2000 underscored the need to abandon open dumping and to
develop and maintain sanitary waste-disposal methods. The tragedy also exposed
the need to train local governments on the value of integrated solid-waste
management planning and how to implement and sustain such systems.
In response to the Payatas disaster, and recognizing that the risk of similar
tragedies exists in other developing countries where waste disposal problems
exist, IETC and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) of
the Government of the Philippines will organize a Regional Workshop for Local
Governments on Municipal Solid Waste Management (MSWM) in early August in Minila,
the Philippines. The workshop will bring together decision-makers and senior
technical staff from local governments in the Philippines and other countries in
Southeast Asia. The aim of the workshop is to build the capacities of these key
persons to understand and apply the concepts and elements of MSWM, in
particular: (a) how to shift from open dumpsites to controlled landfills that
will not be abandoned and will require proper closure; and, (b) how to
rehabilitate and redevelop closed dumpsites into useful urban space.
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