QC Council gives nod to Payatas conversion

The Quezon City Council has approved a resolution authorizing Mayor Feliciano Belmonte Jr. to enter into a negotiated contract with a reputable firm to convert Payatas dump into a controlled facility.

The resolution, principally authored by Councilor Antonio Inton Jr. (4th district) is in consonance with Republic Act 9003, or the Ecological Waste Management Act, which gives local government units three years to close open dumps.

Under the law, the Quezon City government has until Jan. 6, 2005 to convert Payatas into a controlled dump.

Belmonte, in the meantime, has undertaken initiatives to institute the following improvements in Payatas for operation efficiency as well as to make sure it is safe and sanitary:

• minimizing water build-up by deepening and widening of the water ways around the site;

• controlling garbage volume by limiting dumping in Quezon City, which generates are least 1.5 tons of garbage daily;

• concreting access roads leading to the site which has resulted in a faster turnaround time for garbage haulers, enabling them to make two to three trips a day instead of just one; and

• coordinating with the Philippine National Oil Co. (PNOC) over possible extraction of methane gas from the site.

Belmonte said if the volume of methane gas is found to be commercially viable, the city government will tap it as an energy source.

"If not, we will develop a system to extract it so that methane gas will not build up at the site and pose danger," the mayor said. – Perseus Echeminada