A viable landfill site
Almost a decade ago, I took the gall of suggesting to the powers that be that there was the shortest possible link between the Cities of Cebu and Toledo. For a while, I got the interest of former Governor Gwen Garcia, to look into the project. In reaction to few persistent columns I wrote, the then governor, now a representative of the third district of the province, instructed her trusted men to explore the idea of working a road stretching from the Dumlog-Carmen-Capt Claudio road in Toledo City towards Barangay Sudlon in Cebu City. To complete the link, the side of Cebu City administration had to extend the wide and concrete road that already inched its way from somewhere in Bonbon to meet the Toledo stretch, an idea that the former Cebu City mayor did not mind at all.
Before former Governor Gwen could act further on the concept, her political woes took the wind beneath her proverbial wings. She could not attend to the dream anymore. Had the project been undertaken, the distance between the city halls of Cebu and Toledo would have only been about 45 kilometers, shorter compared to the Tabunok-Lutopan link which is about 49 kilometers or the Naga-Uling way which has a length of about 59 kilometers and definitely much shorter than thru the trans-central highway via Balamban town, covering a distance of about 66 kilometers.
While hammering on the proposition, I had the chance to talk to a then Cebu City hall high-strung personality on the same topic. He has since moved to the MCIAA. I asked him to study the possibility of boring a tunnel under the Kalunasan-Babag mountains. It should start somewhere in Busay and end in Bonbon to approach the concrete road. It would have cut the distance even more.
What triggers this memory is an urgent problem of the city. His Honor, Cebu City Mayor Michael L. Rama closed the Inayawan landfill recently. As an immediate consequence, solid waste generated by the barangays in the south district of the city has to be transported to a mountain barangay in the Consolacion town. Considering that Barangay Pit-os, which is the shortest way to the Consolacion garbage facility, is some 13 kilometers from the central business district of the city, we can calculate the long travel garbage trucks have to make to deposit their cargo.
Had the fourth and shortest connection between the eastern and western coasts of Cebu island been constructed, not only would there be a much faster travel time between the two adjacent cities, the new highway could have provided vital access to the inner mountain barangays of both cities. More importantly, that link would have opened the eyes of our mayor to a viable landfill site somewhere in the Kalunasan-Lahug-Busay area. At the base of the three mountains is valley that can be converted into a waste disposal facility that is wide enough to last an operation for years. Its terrain happens to fit more the important characteristics of modern landfill than approximate the requirements of any valuable commercial or industrial development. Experts on the subject can agree that the mountainsides will serve as natural barriers.
This valley sits almost right in the center of our city. There is an easily calculable access to it from the barangays in the north and south districts that a much shortened travel time of garbage trucks is environmentally-friendly as it is economical in its operation. Even so, it is still removed far enough from clustered residences and even from the periphery of private subdivisions. When vegetation surrounds this landfill, the city is insulated from the remaining odor that escapes from applicable processes.
As a new landfill is a necessity of the city, the mayor may ask his technical people to evaluate the site I have here suggested. While the Cebu City has, for the present, to depend upon the Consolacion dump area or perhaps take the offer of Talisay City to use the latter's landfill, it can, at the same time, fast track this project. I am to realize that instead of its being an opportunity secondary only to the road link, it has become a major project the city must undertake.
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