Where can Metro Manila get rid of its garbage? - ROSES AND THORNS by Alejandro R. Roces

Undoubtedly, Metro Manila’s garbage has become a top problem, Manila has to daily rid itself of something no community wants. What is involved is the health of the entire metropolis. What is at stake for others is not only their health but a desecration of their environment. No one wants pollution and it is not a problem that can be solved by shifting it from one locality to another.

There was a time when Metro Manila dumped its garbage in Manila. Smokey Mountain earned the reputation of being the "Garbage Capital of the World." President Ramos ordered it closed in 1994, and he opened an interim dump in Carmona. The people of Carmona objected to the move and the dump was closed after five years.

During the Aquino administration, San Mateo became the garbage center. It took the people of San Mateo nine years through two administrations to stop the dumping of garbage in their community.

It seems as if the people of Antique have had better luck. First, they obtained a temporary restraining order from the Antique Regional Trial Court stopping the proposed use of Semirara island because of a possible environmental disaster. Now, President Estrada himself has suspended the plan to use Semirara as the new garbage dumpsite. The National Council of Churches of the Philippines said, "Antique is a depressed and isolated province. Its people and properties are always victims of floods and typhoons since it is surrounded tip to tip by rivers. The dumping of Metro Manila’s garbage there will definitely be a bane to Antique." So Antique has been spared of that bane.

But the problem is not where not to dump Metro Manila’s garbage. The real question is: Where do you place Metro Manila’s garbage? If it remains uncollected in Metro Manila’s streets, we will have epidemic in the metropolis. A place has to be found where it will do the least damage to the residents of the area and the environment.

It is a difficult problem. One thing that has to be considered and done is that some form of compensation must be given to the municipality that becomes a dumping site. This is something that has never been done. Anyway we look at it, it is a very difficult problem. We are glad that we have not been tasked with the responsibility of finding a site for Manila’s garbage.