UNCOLLECTED TRASH PILING UP

THE garbage collection problem in Dagupan City’s 31 barangays continues to worsen as  wastes brought to the city’s Barangay Material Recovery Facilities (BMRFs) are left uncollected by the Waste Management Division (WMD) over the last two weeks.

Reason? The city government does not provide fuel for its garbage trucks.

Councilor Marcelino Fernandez, barangay kapitan of Lucao, said barangays continue to collect garbage from households and bring these to their respective BMRFs for segregation and processing but there are no garbage trucks picking these up to be brought to the central MRF located at the dumpsite.

It is at the central MRF where the collected wastes are re-processed and re-segregated before these are hauled to a sanitary landfill for which the city government had signed a contract for the disposal of Dagupan wastes.

“When we inquired why WMD is no longer picking up the wastes, we were told that drivers of the garbage trucks can no longer secure Purchase Orders (POs) for diesel fuel from city hall,” said Fernandez.

He said if the situation continues, the city will suffer from a major environmental crisis as the BMRFs will continue to pollute the air emitting obnoxious smell.

Since the collection of wastes from every household by the barangays has not stopped, BMRFs are already almost full.

Fortunately, the MWD to date still allows the delivery of wastes by barangays to the central MRFs. Meanwhile, some residents have started burning their garbage in their neighborhood, it was learned.

Fernandez said Barangay Lucao’s own mini-dump truck already started bringing some of its garbage to the central MRF in Bonuan Boquig.

The ex-officio councilor cannot understand why city hall has stopped issuing POs for fuel of garbage trucks since the city has sufficient budget for fuel even under a reenacted budget passed in 2021. (Leonardo Micua)

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