Importers, stakeholders aim to make Mindanao a major mango producer

Canadian Ambassador Peter Sutherland said he was impressed by the Filipino-Canadian partnership, which is constructing a P163-million sanitary landfill demonstrate the good working relationship between Filipino and Canadian businessmen," Sutherland said.

"This landfill serves as a model to other provinces in the Philippines. Hopefully, this will address its environmental concerns."

Sutherland’s ocular inspection of the landfill in San Fernando City was part of a Norther Luzon sortie which includes visits to Canadian assisted-funded projects.

Nestled in the highlands of barangays Mameltac and Dallangayan, some 4.5 kilometers from San Fernando City, is a sanitary landfill, dug into the rolling hills. It commands a panoramic view of the eastern side of the city. (A sanitary landfill is an environment-friendly "garbage/landfill/dumpsite where the soil is protected with liner, leachate drainage, pipes for emitted gases, fenced, with gate recording trucks, daily soil cover and closure procedure.)

"San Fernando’s sanitary landfill has three phases and have an area of 10.56 hectares. It is touted as a modern engineered landfill in the Luzon area," said J. Bruce Williams, project representative of the Canadian company-Conestoga Rover’s & Associate (CRA), which jointly undertook the project with Kane Construction Inc. (KCI).

The KCI-CRA joint venture sanitary landfill project started in October 2005. It is expected to be finished by 2007.

La Union Governor Victor Ortega said he is grateful to the Canadian government for undertaking various community projects in his locality.

For his part, San Fernando City Vice Mayor Bernando Valera, now acting mayor, said." Our partnership with Canada has been marked with achievements. This partnership includes landfill, information technology and disaster preparedness.