Province to open landfill in Carmen

CEBU, Philippines - The provincial government is setting up a "provincial sanitary landfill" in Barangay Dawis Sur, Carmen in northern Cebu within the year, allocating at least P5 million for the project.

The budget, incorporated in the Annual Investment Plan for 2016, will be used to prepare the 17-hectare lot the province purchased during the time of former governor Gwendolyn Garcia.

 Atty. Chad Estella, former chief of the Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office (PENRO), said they originally proposed a P20 million budget but the Provincial Board slashed it by P5 million.

Estella said Governor Hilario Davide III has earmarked the amount to develop one hectare of the site initially.

 "The property, which was bought to house the province's sanitary landfill, has been dormant for years now…this admi-nistration wants to utilize it for that purpose," he told reporters.

 Davide, in a separate interview, agreed. "I really want to pursue that this year… There's a sense of urgency ana gyud. Dugay naman gyud na but wala lang nadayon sa previous administration," he said.

 The project was left unimplemented because officials of Barangay Dawis Sur opposed the landfill, citing its possible threat to the health of residents and to the environment, among others.

 Estella said that for a one-hectare site, it would cost over P1 million to install a liner, the barrier that prevents toxic substances from seeping into underlying aquifers or rivers.

 Capitol plans to bid the P5 million project out. Estella said the contractor would then be the one to comply with requirements such as securing an Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC) from the Environmental Management Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources-7.

Aside from this, Estella said Capitol is also eyeing at a public-private partnership (PPP) in establishing a sanitary landfill.

 "The (proposed) landfill is not only for Carmen but for all the local government units of the province, particularly those without sanitary landfill yet," he said.

 Capitol officials have yet to decide whether or not to collect tipping fees from local government units that would dump their garbage at the landfill.

"If maka-raise of revenue, maybe the Capitol will collect tipping fees," he said.

 PENRO records show that only six out of 51 component cities and towns of Cebu province operate a sanitary landfill.

 Among these are Talisay City and the towns of Asturias, Balamban, Consolacion, Cordova, and Dalaguete.

 However, there are 33 towns and cities in the province that have submitted a 10-year solid waste management plan. These include Ronda, San Fernando, Carmen, Asturias, Daanbantayan, San Francisco, Moalboal, Oslob, Cordova, Argao and the cities of Carcar, Mandaue, Toledo, and Cebu City.

 DENR is yet to release the full list of local government units that complied with Republic Act 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000.

 The law mandates LGUs to close all open dump sites and replace them with sanitary landfills as a final disposal site for solid and, eventually, residual wastes.

 Among other things, the minimum criterion for the site of a sanitary landfill is that it should have an adequate quantity of earth cover material. The site should be large enough to accommodate the community's wastes for five years.

 Others include the requirement of liners, or a system of clay layers or geosynthetic membranes used to contain leachate and keep contaminants from flowing into groundwater sources.  The National Solid Waste Management Commission recently filed a complaint for non-compliance against local officials of 600 LGUs nationwide, including Compostela town and Bogo City in northern Cebu, at the Office of the Ombudsman.

 In February this year, the Ombudsman filed complaints against 350 LGUs and close to 600 officials nationwide on behalf of the National Solid Waste Management Commission for failing to comply with RA 9003.

 DENR-EMB recently identified and submitted the list of 350 LGUs, including Compostela town and Bogo City in northern Cebu, with recurring and blatant violations of open dump sites to the Ombudsman.

 Only 36 percent or 545 LGUs nationwide have complied with all aspects of the law within 15 years of RA 9003's enactment in 2001. — (FREEMAN)