The Manila dump that collapsed in July, killing more than 200, has been reopened, as authorities are having trouble dealing with the accumulating piles of garbage.

The Payatas dump has been closed since a rain-soaked mountain of trash thundered down on a shanty town where poverty stricken people live, burying hundreds of them alive.

At least 218 people died in the garbage slide, but more than 100 more could still be buried under the tonnes of garbage.

The streets of Quezon City, a Manila suburb, have been littered with garbage since President Joseph Estrada closed the dump.

And a recent typhoon damaged a bridge, making sending garbage to a nearby landfill more difficult.

The garbage dumps are a symbol of the extreme poverty some Filipinos live in. The people killed when the dump collapsed on them depended on the trash heap for a living, picking through it for recyclable objects they could sell.

A $20-million class-action lawsuit has been filed against the local government and private waste contractors for negligence in the collapse.