Bambang, Nueva Vizcaya—The local government in this town recently inaugurated its new P65-million sanitary landfill in barangay Aliaga here.
Lawyer Antonio Abawag, Department of Environment and Natural Resources Regional Executive Director for Cagayan Valley, represented Secretary Roy Cimatu and led the inauguration of the engineered waste management facility, touted as the first of its kind in the region.
He also extended the praise and appreciation of Cimatu to the LGU of Bambang to address the garbage situation in the municipality.
“Whether we like it or not, garbage will always be with us and its volume will increase correspondingly as the population grows, hence, we need a right place to dispose our garbage in a proper manner without any risk to public health,” Abawag said.
Quoting Cimatu’s message, Abawag also reminded local officials to exert conscious effort to change the culture of insensitivity and indiscretion among the people.
“Conceiving and enforcing ways to keep our surrounding clean will be futile as long as some people and entities remain thoughtless and wanton in the disposal of their wastes,” he added.
Abawag also expressed optimism that municipalities will follow suit in properly managing solid wastes for a clean environment.
He also reported that river and estero cleanups are now regularly conducted by the DENR with the stakeholders.
For his part, Bambang outgoing mayor, lawyer Flaviano Balgos Jr., said waste segregation should start at source for the facility to last.
He also challenged the incoming administration to be forward-looking and always consider the future of the children as he emphasized that the government is serious in the enforcement of environmental laws.
To ensure the protection of public health and environment, the local government units are mandated to be primarily responsible in the implementation and enforcement of Republic Act 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management of 2000 within their respective jurisdictions.
It likewise mandates the LGUs to construct, operate and maintain waste disposal site.
Sanitary landfills are engineered facilities that serve as a final disposal site for solid and residual wastes providing a leachate management system simultaneously storing solid waste while the decomposition process takes place thus, protecting the underlying groundwater against contamination.
These facilities also prevent air pollution and diseases.