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Tuesday, 22 August, 2000, 16:57 GMT 17:57 UK
Justice plea over dump collapse
![]() Survivors say local officials should have warned them of the danger
Relatives of more than 200 people who died in the collapse of a Philippine rubbish dump last month have petitioned the government demanding it prosecutes three local officials they say were responsible for the tragedy.
At least 218 people died when a mountain of rubbish at the Payatas dump near Manila collapsed, swamping a community of scavengers who scraped a living picking through the refuse. The lawyers say the local government was at fault for failing to warn the community of the danger they were in.
The landslide is thought to have been triggered by weeks of torrential rains and typhoon conditions. Earlier this month survivors of the tragedy announced that they would be suing the local government and the operators of the Payatas dump for $20m in damages.
With no official record of people who had been living on the dump and with many families thought to have been entirely wiped out it is unlikely that the final death toll from the disaster will ever be known. Until its closure following the collapse, the Payatas dump was the primary disposal centre for the 7,000 tonnes of rubbish produced daily by metropolitan Manila. |
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