At least three dead following landslide at a waste dump in Cebu City, the Philippines.

Three people have now been confirmed dead and thirty five are still missing following a landslide at a waste dump in Cebu City, the Philippines, on Thursday 8 January 2026. The incident happened at about 4.00 pm local time, crushing a building where waste was sorted and compacted, and burying 50 sanitation workers at the site. Since this time twelve have been pulled out of the debris alive and three have been found dead. Rescue efforts are being hampered by rainfall, as well as methane leaking from the site which prevents the use of cutting equipment which might create sparks.

The aftermath of a landslide at the Barangay Binaliw waste dump outside Cebu City in the Philippines. Jacqueline Hernandez/Rappler.

The Barangay Binaliw waste site opened in 2019 on the site of a former Mango plantation, and has been dogged by controversy ever since. The site is officially a landfill site, however, landfill sites comprise one or more large excavated pits, which are then lined with waterproof clay and a dense plastic lining, and once they are filled to an agreed level, are sealed with more clay and then topsoil. Inspectors from the Cebu City Environment and Natural Resources Office were unable to find any trace of such a lining when they inspected the site in August 2024, instead finding an open dump site where waste was being piled ever higher.

Waste at the Barangay Binaliw site in September 2024. Juan Carlo de Vela/Sun Star.

Since its opening, people living close to the Barangay Binaliw site have complained about foul smells emerging from the site, and increasingly about the precarious way in which waste has been piled up, at a site close to many local homes. Despite these claims, the city has continued to send waste to the privately-owned site, something which has led to accusations of corruption, but which is probably more a result of a lack of alternative facilities to accommodate waste from the city, which has a population of about a million people.

A building crushed by debris following a landslide at the Barangay Binaliw waste site near Cebu City in the Philippines on 8 January 2025. Philippine Star.

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Twenty six confirmed dead and over a hundred feared mising following landlside at garbage dump in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Twenty six people have been confirmed dead and it is feared that over a hundred more may still be buried following a landslide at a garbage dump in Colombo, Sri Lanka on Friday 14 April 2017. Material from the Meethotamulla site collapsed onto housing nearby, destroying about 145 mostly small properties and burying many people within. About 600 people have been rehoused to nearby schools and other public buildings, while several people are being treated in hospital following the event, though hopes of finding any more survivors are fading due to the toxic nature of the material involved. About a thousand rescue workers from a variety of agencies are involved in the rescue operation, though public participation has been stopped after a number of incidents of people allegedly looting from the bodies of the dead.

Ongoing rescue operations at the Meethotamulla dumps site following a landslide on 1 April 2017. Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters.

Residents of the area had apparently been complaining about the site, which rose about 90 m above the surrounding properties, for some time. The dump is thought to have contained about 23 million tonnes of waste, with about 800 tonnes more being added every day. The precise cause of the landslide is still under investigation. The area had been subject to several days of heavy rain earlier in the week, and landslides are a common problem after severe weather events, as excess pore water pressure can overcome cohesion in soil and sediments, allowing them to flow like liquids (approximately 90% of all landslides are caused by heavy rainfall). However many people have reported seeing the dump on fire prior to the collapse, leading to fears that  the incident may have been the result of deliberate malicious action by unknown persons.

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Operations ceased at Padcal Mine following flooding.

Operations were halted at the Padcal Mine, roughly 200 km north of Manila in the Philippines, this week, following intense flooding caused by a series of typhoons hitting the island, including Typhoon Saola that killed at least 39 people earlier in the week. The mine, which produces gold and copper, is operated by Philex Mining Corp., whose shares have fallen by 7.59% since the closure.

The location of the Padcal Mine. Google Maps.

The mine was initially closed on Wednesday 1 August, following reports that water from a tailing pond was entering the Agno River. After inspections on Mines and Geosciences Bureau on Thursday a formal order to cease operations was issued. Philex Mines have issued statements to the effect that the leak has now been contained, and that any waste that entered the river was 'non-toxic and biodegradable'; though it is unclear what non-toxic and biodegradable waste would be in a tailings pond, structures that are normally erected to hold toxic, non-biodegradable waste, and which typically contain acids and heavy metals. Philex have confirmed operations will not resume until the safety of the tailings ponds can be assured.

The Padcal Mine has suffered problems due to typhoon-related flooding in the past. In 1992 the collapse of a tailings dam released 80 million tonnes of tailings, causing significant problems to farmers downstream of the mine. Another tailings dam collapsed in 2001, again causing extensive damage to farmland.

See also Cadmium spill on Longjiang River threatens water supplies to several Chinese cities, Acid spill from gold mine adds to Edith River's woes, Copper spill causes pollution alert on the Edith River in the Northern Territory, Australia and River Neath turned orange by mining run-off.

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Acid spill from gold mine adds to Edith River's woes.

Heavy rainfall associated with Cyclone Grant (now downgraded to Tropical Storm Grant) has caused serious problems along the Edith River in Northern Territory, Australia. There has been widespread flooding, road and rail links have been cut, and a train derailment has lead to a spill of toxic copper concentrate. Now news has emerged that the rainfall has caused a retaining pond at the Mount Todd Gold Mine to fill up and overspill into the river.

The Stuart Highway near the Edith River.

There are typically two types of ponds at gold mines, settling tanks in which ore is deliberately mixed with chemicals that help extract the gold (typically cyanide and mercury compounds) and retaining ponds holding water drained from the mine. The pond affected appears to have been of the latter type, which would be less of a problem, but is still potentially nasty. A mine in the (high precipitation) Northern Territory is likely to produce a lot of water, which will have been contaminated by passing through metal rich deposits. The mine operators, Vista Gold, have conceded that the water is acidic, but have declined to release the results of tests on the water, saying this would 'confuse' the public.

The pond has a history of releasing sulphuric acid (H₂SO₄) and heavy metals into the river, leading to fish kills, and there is no reason to suspect that this spill will be very different. Sulphuric acid is common in wastewater from mines, formed when water reacts with sulphur compounds in the metal-bearing rocks. Retaining ponds containing sulphuric acid are commonly treated with calcium carbonate (CaCO₃; usually powdered limestone) in order to neutralize the acid. The nature of any metals in the water is less clear; iron and copper compounds are common in gold mine runoff, and aluminum, mercury, lead and cadmium are known at other mines.

On Thursday (28 December) the rate of water running out of the pond was estimated at 1700 m² per hour (1 700 000 liters per hour) and a spokesman from the company stated the water had a pH of 3-3.5 (roughly the equivalent of lemon juice or vinegar), though it was unclear if this figure related to the pool before the rains, the pool after the rains, or the river.

Toxicologist Barry Noller of the Centre for Mined Land Rehabilitation at the University of Queensland has observed that there is a danger of the released water reacting with copper concentrate spilt by a train derailment at the Edith River Crossing. The owners of the spilt material, OZ Minerals, have undertaken to clean up any material remaining at the sight, but admit that there is little they can do about any dissolved material entering the river system. The spill apparently contained copper metal, which is insoluble, copper sulphate, which is soluble, and iron sulphate, which is also soluble; all of these are toxic. Any copper and iron sulphate is likely to have been washed away already, copper could react with the dissolved sulphuric acid to form more copper sulphate, which would then be washed away.

There has been little official response from the authorities in the Northern Territory, which has been criticized by Opposition Minister for Natural Resources, Peter Chandler (Country Liberal), who has accused the Northern Territories Government of being unaccountable and helping the company to keep information from the public.

See also Copper spill causes pollution alert on the Edith River.

Dutch court upholds fine against commodities giant Trafigura for illegally exporting toxic waste to Côte d'Ivoire.

On 23 December 2011 the Amsterdam Court of Appeal upheld a 2010 judgement by a Dutch court to the effect that multinational commodities trading company Trafigura had illegally exported hazardous waste to Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire; waste that resulted in a number of deaths (up to 17, depending on the source of information) and tens of thousands of cases of poisoning (again exact figures are unclear, as different sources quote different figures).

The charge relates to a cargo of 400 tonnes of cleaning residue from oil tanks, which left the UK in June 2006 aboard the Greek registered ship Probo Koala; the cargo was shipped to Amsterdam, where it was due to be offloaded and processed by a Dutch company. However on 2 July 2006 the unloading in Amsterdam was cancelled after Trafigura discovered that the cost of processing would be 3000% of what they had originally expected. The ship was then redirected to Abidjan, where the cargo was unloaded and delivered to a local company for processing.

The Probo Koala.

The exact nature of the cargo is not clear, but the sudden increase in processing in Holland implies that the cargo was considerably more toxic than had been originally thought. Trafigura have constantly pointed out that residual waste of this kind is a common byproduct of the oil industry, and that it is commonly processed in a number of centers around the world, including Abidjan. However if an incorrect cleaning chemical had been used at some stage then a far more dangerous end-product would not be surprising. This would explain the higher costs required by the company in Holland, and the subsequent inability of the Ivorian company to handle the waste. The Dutch court accepted evidence from Côte d'Ivoire that the waste was caustic and caused burning to the skin (unsurprising in toxic cleaning residue); though a British court had early accepted that the waste would cause only 'flu-like symptoms' (though since the flu can kill you this isn't a great improvement).

An Ivorian man with burns allegedly caused by contact with waste from the Probo Koala.

Trafigura had already reached pre-trail settlements with the Ivorian government and a group of victims seeking compensation in the UK, by which they agreed to pay €152 million in Côte d'Ivoire and €33 million in the UK, in return for which they were able to avoid the matter coming before a court in either country. Unfortunately the stopover in Amsterdam meant that the shipment was also covered by Dutch law, enabling prosecutors there to bring charges against Trafigura. Since no settlement had been sought in Holland there was no way to prevent the matter coming to court. The Amsterdam Port Authorities were also charged for their part in the affair, but were acquitted. Trafigura were fined €1 million in July 2006, which both parties appealed; Trafigura wishing to have the conviction overturned and the prosecutor seeking to have the fine doubled to €2 million. Since Trafigura had already paid out a total of €185 million to avoid a judgement it is to be assumed that they were more concerned about being ruled liable than they were about the money.

The clean-up operation in Abidjan.

Trafigura also brought legal action against The Guardian newspaper in the UK in 2009, after the paper came into possession of documents relating to the shipment. The company was initially granted an injunction, but the documents then appeared on the Wikileaks website, then were raised in a parliamentary question by Labour MP Paul Farrelly, enabling The Guardian to claim the document was in the public domain, and publish anyway. Trafigura has consistently claimed that The Guardian's coverage of the story has been 'highly misleading' and 'a complete distortion of the facts'.

See also Oil spill off the coast of Nigeria and The UN reports on oil pollution in Ogoniland.