THE city government has asked the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to extend the deadline for the closure of the open dumpsite in Bonuan as it admitted the city does not have the luxury of space where it can build its sanitary landfill.

 City Waste Management Officer Reginaldo Ubando said this was the response of the local government to the DENR, which required the city to submit a safe closure plan on the city’s existing dumpsite within 10 days starting two weeks ago.

The city acquired a 30-hectare land in Barangay Awai in San Jacinto ostensibly as the site for its sanitary landfill during the Lim administration but the area is already feared lost to agrarian land reform coverage.  

Aside from Dagupan, the DENR also sent notices to the three other cities in the province, namely Urdaneta, San Carlos and Alaminos.

All four have difficulty managing their wastes.

“If we close our dumpsite, where shall we place our garbage which is estimated to be around 90 cubic meters a day?” said Ubando.

He said the city needs more time to prepare its safe closure plan because it has yet to negotiate with owners of properties adjacent to the dumpsite.

“This is not easy because some of these property owners, like Mr. Guy Solis, are living abroad,” he added.

The four-hectare dumpsite, built more than 50 years ago, is actually already in its pre-closure operations with only 1.2 hectares now being utilized to accommodate wastes.

Dagupan, said Ubando, is luckier than other local government units (LGUs) because it has been able to reduce the volume of its garbage from 400 cubic meters daily to 90 cubic meters daily following a campaign promoting segregation, recycling and composting.

This is aside from the fact that the barangays are now doing their garbage collections in accordance with the provision of RA 9003, which is yet to be implemented by other LGUs.

“We are not only enforcing Republic Act 9003 here. We are also enforcing the Clean Air Act and also cleaning our rivers. We can not just do this within 10 days,” said Ubando.

He said a sanitary landfill requires an area of 10 to 12 hectares, with each hectare estimated to cost from P12 to P30 million.

While the deadline for open dumpsites was February 2006, there  are only four sanitary landfills existing in the country, Ubando noted.

Ubando admitted Dagupan’s earlier plan to build a sanitary landfill in San Jacinto is now a hopeless case.—LM

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