Cagayan de Oro City —The government has started the rehabilitation of the city’s dump as part of the long-delayed compliance with the Solid Waste Management Act of 2003.
for lack of funds with which CDO could build a sanitary
landfill as required by the law on the Solid Waste
Management Act of 2003. BOBBY LAGSA
Edwin Dael, head of the City Local Environment and Resource Office, said that the city is supposed to do away with its dumpsite in 2006, six years after the passage of the law.
“Until now, we have no sanitary landfill,” Dael said during the forum on the rehabilitation of the current city dumpsite in Upper Dagong, Carmen.
He added that it is ironic that the city is still using a dumpsite and not a sanitary landfill as required by law. “All provisions of the law (RA 9003) have not been met,” Dael added.
The city’s 17-hectare dumpsite was designed to hold 1.8 million cubic meters of garbage in eight landfill beds, but recent figures showed that it already exceeded its capacity with four million cubic meters of garbage having piled up.
It was designed to last for 25 years.
Dael said that before Mayor Oscar Moreno took the helm of the city in 2013, there were orders to comply with law issued to the city by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
In June 2011, then Mayor Vicente Emano and the city council, through city ordinance 12081-2011 bought a land in Sitio Pamalihi, Pagatpat which covered 37 hectares for the planned Sanitary landfill, after the DENR in June 2010 issued an Authority To Close the dumpsite.
The Pagatpat site was put on hold pending an issuance of Environmental Compliance Certificate from the DENR.
Maricel Casino-Rivera head of the City Information Office said that since the city council did not approve the P30 million budget proposal for 2015, the city government will have to rehabilitate the old dumpsite.
The plan is to close four hectares of the site and rehabilitate it via compacting and putting in pipings for the methane gas and leeching and contouring it
Rivera added that while the city government is rehabilitating the dumpsite, it will source out funds for feasibility studies in alternative locations in different barangays.
Rivera added that with the Moreno administration’s proposed budget for solid waste management this year, P13 million of it was intended for the feasibility studies for the new sanitary landfill.
Dael added that it is ironic that the city is still using a dumpsite and not a sanitary landfill as required by law. “All provisions of RA9003 has not been met,” Dael added.
Dr. Fe Bongcas, City health Officer said that the city dumpsite posed a serious health risk to the city.
The dumpsite is situated 3.7 kilometers from the city hall and surrounded by new villages, some of them less than a kilometer away.
On several occasions, the dumpsite on dry season catches fire owing to methane gas deposits buried under tons of garbage.
“We are really close to declaring a health emergency in the city due to the rising cases of respiratory related illness,” Bongcas said.
“It’s not just the residents around the area; also at risk are at least 1700 scavengers and garbage workers in the dump,” Bongcas added.