Cebu fails to implement waste management law

Environmental Management Bureau regional director Alan Arranguez yesterday revealed that at least 39 municipalities in Cebu and the cities of Cebu, Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu still have open dumpsites even if the deadline for open dumping has long lapsed.

He said only Bais City has so far complied with Republic Act 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000.

The lack of funding and commitment of the local government units on solid waste management resulted in the failure of most LGUs in Cebu to comply with the law, he pointed out.

Arranguez explained that it would take P150 million to P250 million funding for the conversion of dumpsites. "So far, the only ideal landfill that we have here in the region is in Bais. None in Cebu. LGUs here are not that committed when we talk of solid waste management."

R.A. 9003 mandates the closure of all open dumpsites or their conversion into controlled dumps. Arranguez said the conversion was a stopgap measure because controlled dumps should have been closed by February 16, 2006.

The Act essentially emphasizes the philosophy of waste as a resource that can be recovered. It lobbies the principle of reduction, reuse, recycling, and recovery as means to minimize and manage the country’s solid waste management problem to be implemented by each and every sector of society - from the government to commercial establishments and industries, and most importantly, in households.

Also, the Act convened both the government and the private sector as member-agencies of the established National Solid Waste Management Commission. Such merging of sectors has been echoed in the campaign "Sa Sama-Samang Pagkilos, Basura ay Maisasaayos! (Together, We Can Manage Our Garbage!), emphasizing the need for Filipinos to unite for change.

Since the enactment of RA 9003, the National Waste Commission has engineered programs and projects that would raise, among Filipinos, consciousness on the proper practice of solid waste management.

A nationwide search for model barangays on ecological waste management system is now in its second round of implementation to recognize, reward, support, and help ensure the sustainability of existing ecological solid waste management programs among LGUs. This was almost synonymous to a kick-off for an LGU-wide implementation of the Ecological Solid Waste Management System.

At present, the commission is aiming for the implementation of the Ecological Solid Waste Management System on an LGU-wide scale to perform as models in provinces, to be duplicated by other LGUs.

The commission is currently targeting 48 LGUs to serve as models, six from Metro Manila, and 42 others from 15 regions. – Jasmin R. Uy/MEEV