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Tuesday, July 10, 2007
RP unveils project to turn garbage into electricity at Manila dump (9:15 p.m.)
MANILA -- Methane generated by a sprawling and deadly garbage dump in the Philippine capital will be converted into power for a nearby shantytown under an Italian-funded project unveiled Tuesday, officials said.
The 200 million-peso (US$4.3 million; euro3.16 million) project at the Payatas dump in Manila's suburban Quezon City aims to convert 5,000 tons of methane every year, amounting to 40,000 megawatts of power in 10 years, Environment Secretary Angelo Reyes said in a statement.
A conversion plant to be built at the 29-hectare (72-acre) dump should be operational by November, Reyes said.
Aside from generating power, the project will also reduce harmful gas emissions that endanger the health of people living in shanties near the dump and that contribute to global warming, Reyes said.
"Methane gas is harmful," he said. "Now it will be utilized to generate power that will light up most of the households in Payatas."
A rain-soaked mountain of garbage at Payatas crashed down on nearby shanties on July 10, 2000, killing more than 200 people. Residents said hundreds more may have been buried alive and never found.
The Payatas dump and another called Smokey Mountain in Manila's Tondo slum district have long symbolized the Philippines' wrenching poverty. Scavengers, including young children, have survived by mining the garbage dumps for leftover food and recyclable objects. (AP)
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