A towering mound of garbage has collapsed at a landfill in Cebu City in the central Philippines on Thursday, killing at least one person and leaving 38 others missing. Local authorities confirmed this recently.
The landslide at the privately-operated Binaliw Landfill buried sanitation workers under a cascade of waste. Rescuers pulled 12 injured workers from the debris and rushed them to the hospital. A 22-year-old woman was confirmed dead.
Approximately 300 personnel from government agencies and civilian groups have been deployed to the site, supported by excavators, ambulances, and fire trucks.
“All response teams remain fully engaged in search and retrieval efforts to locate the remaining missing persons,” Cebu City Mayor Nestor Archival said in a statement on Friday.
While the exact cause of the collapse is under investigation, Cebu City Councillor Joel Garganera suggested that poor waste management practices were a likely factor. He told the local newspaper The Freeman that operators had been cutting into an existing trash mountain to mine soil, then piling new garbage to form another unstable slope.
Many of those missing are believed to be landfill workers.
