Department of Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Roy Cimatu confirmed on Thursday that the Payatas garbage dump in Quezon City has been ordered closed.
Henceforth, Cimatu said, the Payatas site will no longer be permitted to receive the usual truckloads of solid waste material from various points of the National Capital Region because it has reached its full capacity.
Cimatu pointed out that Payatas has been ordered closed four years ago, but the closure has been “extended and extended, and extended.”
The latest so-called “final final extension” apparently was to last until December this year, but Sec. Cimatu decided it would be the better part of wisdom to shut the place down now, and not wait for the end of the year.
The huge pile of garbage, he said, poses a potential landslide hazard to the residents living near the foot of the accumulated solid waste material.
The alternative solid waste dumps would now be in Navotas and in Rodriguez, Rizal. The one in Rodriguez can only accommodate waste loads up to 2022 only, so Cimatu urges people to get into the habit of proper and conservative waste management.
