Leachate overflow needs to be solved

CEBU, Philippines - Engr. Randy Navarro, manager of the Inayawan Sanitary Landfill, said the leachate from the millions of tons of wastes in the old dumpsite really needs urgent attention because these are already overflowing to the sea, particularly during heavy rains

Presenting photographs of the present situation at the landfill, Navarro said the plastic mattings could be already full of leachate because the City does not have a processing plant for the liquid wastes from the landfill. The Inayawan Sanitary Landfill has plastic mattings placed beneath the ground when it was constructed more than 20 years ago to prevent the liquid wastes from contaminating groundwater but these are no longer working.

This concern is one of the reasons Mayor Michael Rama has strongly endorsed the proposal of the Greenergy Solutions Inc. (GSI) to build a waste-to-energy plant within the 16-hectare landfill in Barangay Inayawan without requiring the city to spend even a single centavo.

The City Legal Office already gave its legal opinion that the project would not be disadvantageous to the city, although the sharing agreement for the revenues between the City and the GSI has yet to be discussed.

“This proposal is free. No counterpart funds or guarantee is required of the City Government and no other charges will be subsequently imposed. We have nothing to lose if it fails and everthing to gain if it succeeds,” said lawyer Jade Ponce, chairman of the City Solid Waste Management Board.

The GSI promised to process 1,150 tons of wastes everyday, which will generate 24 megawatts of power that will be sold by them to power distributors for a period of 25 years.

But environmental experts yesterday advised the Cebu City officials to first conduct a thorough study on whether it would be advantageous to the city to approve the proposed P4 billion-Cebu City Integrated Waste-to-Energy.

The Cebu City Council invited some environmental experts when the proposal was submitted to a public hearing yesterday.

Lawyer Gloria Estenzo-Ramos and Teresa Dosdos Ruelas of the Movement for a Liveable Cebu said there should be a thorough study before the City acts on the proposal.

 Ramos said the City does not even have a solid waste management plan that is why she suggested that the SWMB should first craft a plan. Ruelas also suggested for the city to create a multi-sectoral technical working group to be composed of “independent-minded people to create a long-term map and strategy” to include the best approach to solve our waste problem.

Even Engr. Edmond Dantes-Ouano, the president of the Pollution Control Association of the Philippines-Central Visayas chapter, agrees that it should be studied first before the project be implemented.

Pollution Control Division Chief Mar Tabuco of the Department of Environmental and Natural Resources (DENR)-7 said that leachate can contaminate the immediate surface water if there is an overflow.

“It will be a hazard if there is a well nearby that supplies water for drinking. But there is none as what we saw before,” said Tabuco.

Tabuco said that they do not have any information yet about the leachate in the landfill but assured that they will send an inspector this morning to validate the claim.

When asked on what he can recommend to the city officials and local government unit to stop this problem, Tabuco said,“We will investigate first. A team from this department will go there tomorrow (today)”. — (FREEMAN)