Solution to flooding woes

A study by the Japan International Cooperation Study (JICA) has estimated that around P2.4 billion a day is lost from wasted fuel and economic productivity as a result of traffic jams due to thunderstorm-related flash floods.

UP Resilience Institute (URI) executive director Mahar Lagmay has also said that much of the flooding problem is due to how humans have altered the landscape over time.

Lagmay noted that heaving flooding across Metro Manila following strong monsoon rains is not solely due to the volume of rainfall but is also the result of extensive urban development, clogging and obstruction of waterways by garbage and informal settlers, narrowing of rivers due to development of floodplains and coastal reclamation, among others.

Over P2 trillion has been spent on flood control projects in the last 15 years and yet, Metro Manila continues to be inundated.

San Miguel Corp. (SMC) president Ramon Ang recently identified a major problem causing floods in the National Capital Region – over one kilometer of the Tullahan River has been covered by housing and a school, thus blocking the main flood drainage for Quezon City and surrounding areas.

He offered to clean up the rivers and other waterways at no cost to the government. Ang also committed to build a replacement for infrastructure that will be removed along the rivers, particularly a school that was built in Tullahan River as well as houses that have obstructed the flow of water into the river.

Under its Better Rivers PH program, SMC had carried out massive dredging, widening and cleanup operations of the Tullahan and Navotas Rivers, Pasig and San Juan Rivers, those in Parañaque City and in Bulacan, Pampanga and Laguna since 2020. Around 8.52 million cubic meters of waste have so far been removed from over 163 kilometers of rivers covered by the program.

SMC’s efforts to solve national problems, without a cent from the public purse, are not new. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the company spent over P14 billion on vaccines that were flown to far-flung provinces, on food and alcohol, medical equipment donated to hospitals, free toll for essential workers.

Two groups have already expressed their willingness to work with SMC’s top executive to help solve Metro Manila’s flood problem. These are the SM Group and the Federation of Filipino Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

If SMC and SM Group do combine their efforts to help solve the flooding problem, imagine what can be achieved. SMC’s large-scale engineering capacity, being one of the country’s biggest infrastructure conglomerates, and SM’s reach and community footprint, could create a blue print for effective, private sector-driven flood control. And with FFCCCII and other groups’ backing, the initiative could spark a much larger movement toward change.

WTE’s time has come

Then there’s the garbage problem.

Metro Manila produces more than 11,000 tons of municipal solid waste daily, dumped in landfills and open disposal sites. This practice of disposing of garbage not only consumes scarce land in the metropolis; it also releases harmful methane from decaying organic wastes and worsens the flooding situation.

Waste-to-energy (WTE) offers a proven, clean and climate-aligned solution to tackle this problem head-on. Modern WTE facilities are far from the incinerators of the past. Now, they are emissions controlled and internationally regulated and can safely convert residual waste into usable electricity without harming public health.

It’s about time that the Philippines adopt the WTE technology to take care of garbage disposal, just like what other countries like Japan as well as others in Asia, Europe and the Americas have been doing.

With WTE, we not only help solve the solid waste disposal problem, we also generate heat energy that can be used to produce electricity.

WTE is recognized in the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Program from 2020-2040 and the Philippine Energy Plan as a viable renewable energy source. Republic Act 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act does not prohibit all forms of incineration and as held by the Supreme Court in the 2002 case of MMDA vs Jancom, there should be a distinction between incineration that emits toxic and poisonous fumes and cleaner, modern technologies capable of meeting stringent emission standards.

A Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) order (DAO 2019-21) has also affirmed that WTE is permitted provided it complies with Clean Air Act (RA 8749) emission standards, that it undergoes a full environmental impact assessment and that an environmental technology verification report issued by the DOST-Industrial Technology Development Institute is submitted.

The said DAO also requires the installation of continuous emissions monitoring systems, regular testing for dioxins and furans and proper handling and stabilization of bottom ash and fly ash based on hazardous waste thresholds set in the said order.

These WTE facilities can be established under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) program, financed by private sector and the services that will be offered to LGUs to be paid through gate fees. Through this, government funds for garbage disposal will be better spent. Local governments spend billions of pesos annually on garbage hauling, inefficiently at that, and huge tipping fees.

Advocates of WTE have emphasized that this technology is consistent with recycling since what it processes is only residual waste or that portion that cannot be composted or recycled. In successful global models, WTE even strengthens waste segregation by incentivizing proper sorting and penalizing contamination.

The Manila Integrated Environment Corp. (MIEC) has recently proposed to construct and operate a 100-megawatt WTE facility in Tondo, Manila. This Manila WTE project will create a high-capacity and dependable end-point for residual waste, enabling LGUs to streamline and professionalize their collection strategies. With a guaranteed daily processing capacity of 3,000 tons, LGUs can design efficient collection routes and schedules with confidence that waste will not just accumulate in transfer stations or barangay holding areas.

The said project now includes environmental safeguards, a resettlement action plan and is in the process of securing permits required under the RA 8749 and 9003 and DAO 2019-21. It will use a modern and verified flue gas cleaning system to address concerns about toxic pollutant emissions and the said system has already received the go-signal from the DOST.

A WTE plant in the middle of the Manila? Why not? In the central part of Tokyo, Japan, there are 19 WTE plants that are integrated into the urban landscape and play a crucial role in managing the city’s waste while also generating energy.

Even Metro Pacific Investment Corp., a few years back proposed, to set up a WTE plant in Quezon City, the country’s most urbanized district, that will convert up to 3,000 metric tons of municipal solid waste into electricity each day.

Danao in Cebu back in 2023 embarked on a project that introduced the first WTE plant in the country. Other planned WTE facility projects in the country include those in Mandurriao, Iloilo City and in Pangasinan.

The PPP Center earlier said that WTE projects are rising opportunities for power investors as many LGUs are becoming interested in them, adding that WTE is a solution that addresses both the need for renewable energy and sanitary and environmental concerns.

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