Angry protests over RP dump reopening

Angry protests over RP dump reopening

MANILA (Reuters): Angry residents of Rizal province near the Philippine capital tried on Sunday to block garbage trucks passing to a landfill site temporarily reopened to ease Manila's mounting rubbish problem.

Hundreds of residents gathered in the streets of Antipolo, a city of some 600,000 people 30 km east of Manila, and hurled stones at the trucks in an effort to stop them travelling to the San Mateo dump.

About 20 trucks which were blocked on Saturday passed through Antipolo under the protection of police riot squads. Many more were expected from the capital later.

San Mateo is one of two dumps that have received some 6,000 tons of solid waste a day, generated by Manila's 12 million people. The dump was closed at the end of last year when its operating contract expired.

Manila's other dump site, Payatas, was closed after a landslide killed more than 200 poor scavengers living at the site in July last year.