GARBAGE CRISIS FEARED

THE open dumpsite in Dagupan City has been closed after the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) regional office issued a Cease and Desist Order (CDO) on January 21, a situation that could lead to a crisis situation for the disposal of the city’s daily 29 tons of solid wastes.

“We respect the CDO of DENR,” said City Administrator Farah Decano on whose shoulders now rest the burden of finding immediate alternatives to prevent it from creating a crisis.

Mayor Belen Fernandez is still in the United States attending a Forum on Best Practices in Federalism system and is not expected to return until February 5.

Initially, Decano said personnel of the Waste Management Division, the police and the Bureau of Fire Protection were advised to ensure that the CDO is complied with.

She pointed out that pending the validation of another alternative that is still under study, the one option readily available to the city is to use the Urdaneta City sanitary landfill.

She said barangays meanwhile should seek to minimize volume of garbage through segregation, reuse, and recycling and maximize use of their material recovery facilities (MRFs).

WMD chief Ronald de Guzman already discussed the segregation and recycling as regular activities with the barangay chairmen.

The city, Decano said, is set to submit an action plan to DENR which the city hopes the latter will approve. She did not give any detail about the plan.

Meanwhile, Liga ng mga Marangay president Marcelino Fernandez expects the garbage situation in the city to worsen in three to five days since some barangays, especially those near the downtown area,  do not have  MRFs.

To cope with the situation in Barangay Lucao, Fernandez said the barangay

will employ three to five persons as segregators to facilitate the process.

He also proposed that empty lots in low lying areas should accept the waste as filling materials.

Councilor Jeslito Seen said the Fernandez administration has adopted an innovative way to finally end the 50-year-old garbage problem of the city through the establishment of a Waste Conversion Facility (WCF) which is now under the period of evaluation.

Decano said the WCF, a brainchild of Mayor Fernandez, was given good remarks by the technical working group but could not predict its outcome till the next meeting of the selection committee soon.

Mayor Fernandez, she said, is very optimistic that the project has a good chance of being started soon since it is the first facility in Southeast Asia to be put up that can convert garbage into diesel fuel.

The two-hectare lot is ready for the construction of the facility by a company, all at the expense of the private group.  (Leonardo Micua)

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