11 Cebu mayors agree to put up common landfill

CEBU — Eleven mayors of Cebu have banded together to put up a common sanitary landfill and agreed to share the total expenses for the undertaking.

The cluster is composed of the cities of Mandaue, Danao and Lapu-Lapu, and the towns of Liloan, Catmon, Consolacion, Carmen, Compostela, Sogod, Tabogon and Borbon.

Provincial board member Victor Maambong said the estimated cost of a sanitary landfill is P400 million, including land clearing and excavation, collection and treatment, surface water runoff collection and disposal, methane collection and flaring, access road and monitoring wells.

Maambong said the Department of Environment and Natural Resources has approved two areas in Danao City and Sogod town as possible sites of the sanitary landfill.

The Danao site is at least 20 big hectares with available space for expansion, while engineers have yet to check and measure the Sogod site.

Republic Act 9003, or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act, bans burning of trash and open dumpsites, and mandates the establishment of sanitary landfills, recycling centers in every barangay, and the formulation of a 10-year waste management plan.

RA 9003 took effect last year, ordering the conversion of all controlled dumpsites into sanitary landfills on or before January 2006. Local governments which fail to comply face legal action. — Freeman News Service