QC worst hit by garbage problem

Even with the availability of the San Mateo sanitary landfill in Quezon City, the backlog in the collection of garbage in several areas of the city has continued to pile up for the past two months.

In spite of the assurances of the Quezon City government of addressing the problem, huge piles of garbage continue to accumulate on city roads and streets, much to the chagrin of residents.

Monitoring data tallied by the Metro Manila Development Authority showed that at least three districts in Quezon City are still lagging behind in the collection of its garbage.

The biggest problem was in District 3B where the backlog has reached almost 22 days of uncollected garbage as of end-August.

District 3B includes the areas of E. Rodriguez, Socorro, Silangan, Quirino Avenue, Kamias, Old Balara and Loyola Heights.

In District I covering the Pag-Asa, Project 6 and Munoz areas, the backlog averages 9.4 days while in District 2B (Tandang Sora, Culiat) the average was nine days.

MMDA assistant general manager for operations Rogelio Uranza said no definite reason has been identified for the backlog.

However, he cited a number of possibilities collated from its monitoring of the garbage situation in the city.

Uranza claimed that some of the contractors appeared to have deficiencies in their capabilities to service the districts assigned to them. "It seems that they lack units to collect the garbage efficiently," Uranza said.

A possible reason cited was the lack of adjustment by contractors to respond to the recent closure of the Payatas dumpsite. The closure of the dumpsite has forced contractors to dump their garbage collections in the San Mateo landfill in the province of Rizal. – Marvin Sy

This entails greater travel distance and time which the contractors did not forsee.

According to Uranza, the contractors should have responded with an increase in number of collections due to the increase in travel time as well as the queuing of trucks entering the San Mateo landfill.

Uranza noted that some of the contractors most probably do not have enough garbage trucks to handle the changes. He also pointed out the financial aspects of the situation, particularly in the contracts which have not been adjusted to cover the transfer to San Mateo even though the cost has increased.

Uranza added that a new bidding of contracts is scheduled to take place in the city which will hopefully provide a solution to the present backlog.

On the other hand, Districts 2A, 3A and 4, representing mostly the middle class areas have recorded positive collection rates. – Marvin Sy