Human and environmental tragedy in Binaliw

The stench from the Binaliw Landfill had directly reached the noses of city officials who attended the funeral of Mayor Edgardo Labella years back, November 26, 2021 to be exact.

Fast forward to today, August 30, 2024.

The foul smell is still there, perhaps worse because Binaliw Landfill has become not only the disposal area of basura from Cebu City but of basura from other cities like Mandaue and Consolacion Town as well.

Why more basura from LGUs aside from Cebu City are allowed in Binaliw, since when and by whom should be explained by the Cebu City LGU.

Binaliw residents wake up and sleep amidst basura, baho, bangaw, water pollution, health risks (boils, respiratory ailments), and more.

Residents of neighboring areas have also suffered from duga, leachate, stench, and the noise from garbage trucks passing through their areas, from morning till midnight, day in, day out.

For years, Binaliw residents have brought their complaints to those involved in the Binaliw Landfill, including to those in their local and city LGUs.

Now, similar complaints of residents of other barangays outside of Cebu City are increasingly reported but sadly, similarly unattended and ignored.

Who are responsible for and who should respond to this daily garbage-related agony of the residents?

Who should be protecting the residents, their communities and the environment from being harmed by garbage? And when?

Will Acting Mayor Raymond Garcia be the first highest city official to visit Binaliw? Will his visit also translate into meaningful action that will protect the residents and environment of Binaliw?

He may want to require, soonest, air pollution and water tests to be conducted in various areas of Binaliw and neighboring communities.

The case of Binaliw is one human and eco-tragedy that has been irresponsibly allowed to persist.

Had there been effective, genuine, regular monitoring and regulation by authorities, Binaliw would not have turned out to what it had been allowed to become.

Should we not all also give time for genuine, collective action to effectively, responsibly manage garbage soonest?

Should we not also unite and demand LGU officials to implement alternative waste management instead?

For as long as waste management concentrates on truck collection and disposal (the end stage of the waste stream), expect unabated foul smelling, filthy, harmful waste for people, communities, and the planet. In the past there was Inayawan. Now, there is Binaliw.

Effective waste management should regulate waste generation, focus on waste reduction at source, waste segregation, and the various R’s (reuse, reduce, recycle and more).

Waste comes from each one’s hand and should be resolved with everyone’s involvement.

No need for huge budget to waste on garbage collection/disposal, purchase of lands and equipment, etcetera. No need for expensive, unnecessary Waste to Energy facilities.

Why not use instead the huge budget proposed for WTE to meet the immediate, urgent needs of the poor in the cities and province of Cebu?

The poor urgently/immediately need food, houses, jobs, clean water, health and welfare services, NOT energy from waste.

Instead of spending millions for collection and hauling of garbage from communities, or for waste to energy facilities, why not spend millions to pay, reward, incentivize residents and communities to reduce/manage their own waste?

Participatory waste management will also result in less waste volume, less budget for trucks, gasoline, spare parts, labor, land purchase, etc.

Why are LGU officials more partial to more economically and environmentally costly truck-based garbage collection, hauling, disposal, as well as landfills and WTE?

Why have LGU officials not allowed/not implemented alternative, participatory, inexpensive waste management that will bring more benefits to people and the environment?

How can those who profess to be public servants allow hundreds and more residents to daily experience the stench, the filth, the health dangers of garbage disposed in their communities?