The stinky business of waste disposal
June 7, 2004 | 12:00am
"It is our task in our time and in our generation, to hand down undiminished to those who come after us, as was handed down to us by those who went before, the natural wealth and beauty which is ours." – John F. Kennedy
"The magnificence of mountains, the serenity of nature - nothing is safe from the idiot marks of man’s passing."– Loudon Wainwright
How many of us are aware that some 1,500 tons of Metro Manila garbage and toxic wastes are illegally dumped every day on private lands, in rivers, creeks and into scenic Manila Bay? Trash that is openly burned, heavily polluting our air, endangering public health, contaminating our waters, despoiling our lands and polluting the air we breathe. Why do we allow an estimated 150,000 Metro Manila urban poor residents to live in hazardous squatter colonies in, around or on garbage dumpsites, which might become veritable breeding grounds for epidemics?
Garbage is big business for haulers, contractors, thousands of scavengers. How many thousands of children as young as five years old, teenagers and other people eke out their meager living as scavengers and waste-pickers on mountains of smoldering trash, not knowing that in the US or developed nations only people with special protective suits are allowed near these kinds of unhealthy garbage dumps?
Officially, it is claimed that there are 3,500 waste-pickers and garbage scavengers, but there could be much, much more. Even after the closure of the notorious Smokey Mountain in Tondo, Metro Manila today faces a looming garbage crisis that might have disastrous effects on our economy, public health and the environment if government doesn’t prepare alternatives or get its act together.
Asian Development Bank (ADB) top officials Richard S. Ondrik and Matthew S. Westfall recently talked about their groundbreaking $1.25 million study on the Metro Manila garbage industry. The impetus for the Philippine government to approach ADB and ask for help in studying the garbage situation was the Payatas tragedy of year 2000 when Quezon City was still under Mayor Mel Mathay. The catastrophic slide of garbage killed over 200 urban poor residents of the dumpsite area.
Based on 14-month research and onsite investigations by international and local consultants of all existing garbage dumpsites for our metropolis and the whole process of disposing wastes, the ADB officials were shocked at "the horrendous environmental catastrophe in the making" if the government does not immediately come up with a comprehensive solution.
The ADB officials warned: "You only have less than two years disposal capacity in Metro Manila based on your existing unsanitary, unsafe and dangerous dumpsites, what will happen next since there are still no major plans? The Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) recently claimed that the ADB is wrong in our report, that there’s no crisis, because you still have two years. Why are they hiding the issue, since this is potentially a huge environmental, social and even economic disaster if not solved now? For most people, as long as garbage does not pile up in the streets or in your front yard, it’s OK, but there is now an ongoing crisis as an unceasing tidal wave of refuse overwhelms your metropolis. There is now no functional system of waste reduction, reuse, recycling and disposal, thus pressuring local governments to cope the best way they can. This is alarming."
The ADB report was compiled in 13 volumes of data and documents that reeked with amazing data of neglect, corruption and lack of good planning. Matthew Westfall has lived in the Philippines for 17 years and will soon be assigned as ADB chief country officer in Azerbaijan Republic in the Caucasus region this July. He said that his concern for the Philippines goes beyond mere social conscience and ADB work, because his wife is a Filipina and his grandfather Peter Westfall was a migrant who fled the Russian Communist Revolution and became a chemist at San Miguel Corp. for 17 years in the pre-war 20th century.
Richard Ondrik is the ADB chief country officer for the Philippines, a resident of Metro Manila for 13 years. He said he has also learned to love the country despite all our political and economic troubles.
Westfall and Ondrik said that ADB is willing to allocate $50 million or P2.8 billion, or even more, to help finance "a viable project to solve this looming great garbage crisis of Metro Manila."
Ondrik said, "Please help the public realize the grave situation of this looming garbage crisis. For us in the ADB, we are willing to assist, but studies are enough. No more plans, no more research, it is now time for decisive action to avert this massive environmental catastrophe. We will no longer be willing to send your political leaders to visit Hawaii or Beijing to study their waste disposal systems, we have made this comprehensive study already."
In a three-hour interview with Westfall and Richard Ondrik, these are some of the important points and disturbing questions they raised:
• Between P3.54 billion ($64 million) and P6 billion is spent on hauling and dumping contracts of Metro Manila garbage, how come the government is not using world-class standards for waste disposal available at cheaper our existing expenditures? Government is spending an average of P1,450 or $26.40 per ton, why couldn’t they do it more efficiently and safely?
• There are some barangays and other local communities in Metro Manila who wisely separate different kinds of garbage, but how come hauling contractors and trucks are not educated or required to separate different kinds of wastes for healthy and clean disposal, and even for reuse and recycling purposes?
• In our 14-month research by an international team of consultants, we found no evidence of industrial wastes in the major dumpsites for Metro Manila. Where are all the industrial wastes like heavy metal and toxins going everyday? We do not know where they all go.
• An example of horrendous waste disposal practices pointed out by ADB officials is the Lupang Arenda area in Taytay, Rizal near the edge of Laguna de Bay. Here, a community of 125,000 urban poor was built in September 2003 with over 2 million cubic meters of decomposing garbage, which poses great public health and environmental risks.
• The ADB officials said, "A well-connected firm named IPM was then hauling garbage there. The site was even proclaimed as a housing site for the poor. We believe that illegal dumping of garbage in that area continues up to this day. Can you imagine 171 hectares of land and a garbage pile covered with only three meters of soil, then 25,000 houses for 125,000 people to be built there? When we went to investigate and take photos, armed guards stopped us, claiming no trash. But we saw illegal dumping of garbage and bulldozers working. We had reported this to your DENR Secretary Elisea Gozun."
• Where does most of Metro Manila’s 47 tons of daily medical toxic wastes go? We’re not sure where half of these infectious and dangerous wastes are disposed of? Are they thrown into the esteros or rivers daily, or secretly buried in backyards? Where are the used medical syringes or laboratory blood samples of sick people thrown? We have seen kids picking up syringe needles out of garbage piles, are they resold to drug addicts? What about the body parts and other wastes of your Metro Manila mortuaries, where do they go? They should be properly disposed of, separated and even incinerated!
• ADB officials pointed out that when a bubonic plague hit Surat city in India in ‘94 due to the unsolved garbage crisis, poverty and floods, 56 people died, but the Indian economy suffered $420 million loss in exports and 45,000 cancelled tourist arrivals. The whole country’s hotel occupancy rates dropped to 20 percent. How come our government and other sectors do not have a sense of urgency in solving this looming garbage crisis, which may possibly lead to horrible human, medical and huge economic costs for the Philippines if not solved and averted?
• Matthew Westfall, the main writer of the daring and unvarnished ADB report, said, "You know one early morning at 6 a.m. in September 2003, I went to Catmon in Malabon to take some photos of the dangerous and unhealthy garbage dumpsite, and it was one of the most difficult scenes I have ever seen in my whole life! I saw a sea of maggots breeding all over the site, with kids and other people scavenging without gloves. I saw a girl taking rotting food, which she claimed was for her pig. How can we allow children to suffer that kind of fate now in this 21st century? This is not acceptable! Kids shouldn’t be allowed to grow up in that kind of dangerous environment! This garbage report is not just an ADB study – it is a project with the full support, endorsement and cooperation of your government’s Department of Environment and Natural Resources. It was the Philippine government that approached us at ADB to undertake this comprehensive and scientific study. We were also supported by nine NGOs. We gave all your top political leaders a copy. Proper and efficient garbage disposal is not a mystery, it is not rocket science, the technologies are available and you are now already spending a lot of money doing it wrongly. What you need is political will to solve this looming crisis. When will your government take decisive action?"
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