Firm offers P540M rehabilitation for Inayawan Sanitary Landfill

CEBU, Philippines - A private company has offered to rehabilitate the Inayawan Sanitary Landfill and construct a new one in Barangay Agsungot.

Armando V. Mendoza and Associates, a Cebu-based consultancy firm, proposed a P540 million rehabilitation plan and the building of a private landfill.

The proposal includes the removal, transportation of approximately 500,000 cubic meters of old garbage, disposal operations and rehabilitation of the five-hectare sanitary landfill including the treatment and final soil cover. Based on their proposal, the old garbage from Inayawan will be disposed in the new landfill that they planned to build on a private lot in Barangay Agsungot.

Mendoza said their proposal will save the city government at least P200 million since the city will no longer buy new lot.

He said that rehabilitating the landfill would also mean P740 million savings for the city because it does not anymore need to transfer outside the city the one million cubic meters of existing garbage.

The construction of the seven hectares new sanitary landfill can be used by the city government for the next seven years, Mendoza said.

The Inayawan sanitary landfill has already been declared under state of calamity. According to City Councilors Eduardo Rama and Nida Cabrera, the absence of a proper wastewater, leachate (garbage juice) and sludge treatment facility inside the landfill poses risk on the environment and on the health of nearby residents.

Rama and Cabrera said the declaration would enable City Hall to use the local government’s calamity fund for the construction of a wastewater, leachate and sludge treatment facility inside the landfill. The treatment facility is said to cost at least P12 million.

The City also wants to use the calamity fund to rent heavy equipment for the centralized material recovery facility (MRF) in the 15.4-hectare facility.

Since the start of the operation of the landfill in 1998, there was no provision for a wastewater, leachate, and sludge treatment facility.

The landfill has been closed for dumping since April 1. — (FREEMAN)