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Iloilo guv pushes establishment of sanitary landfills

By Gail Momblan

July 10, 2019, 6:40 pm

<p><strong>TACKLING GARBAGE PROBLEM.</strong> Municipal mayors gather on Tuesday (July 9, 2019) at the Iloilo capitol to discuss ways to address the province's waste problem.  Governor Arthur Defensor pushed for the establishment of sanitary landfills and to reduce the use of plastics. <em>(PNA Photo by Gail Momblan)</em></p>

TACKLING GARBAGE PROBLEM. Municipal mayors gather on Tuesday (July 9, 2019) at the Iloilo capitol to discuss ways to address the province's waste problem.  Governor Arthur Defensor pushed for the establishment of sanitary landfills and to reduce the use of plastics. (PNA Photo by Gail Momblan)

ILOILO CITY -- Iloilo Governor Arthur Defensor Jr. is pushing for the establishment of more sanitary landfills for waste management in the province.

Defensor gathered the municipal mayors and the municipal environment and natural resources officers on Tuesday afternoon to tackle Iloilo's problem with garbage.

Arturo Cangrejo, the Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Officer (PENRO), said the province produces around 230 tons of solid wastes every day.

Currently, Iloilo is constructing a sanitary landfill category 4 in Passi City and sanitary landfill category 1 in Lambunao town.

Category 4 landfills can be applied to a cluster of municipalities with collective residual wastes greater than 200 tons per day, while category 1 landfills can be applied to a cluster of municipalities with collective residual wastes greater than 15 tons per day, Cangrejo said.

In a press conference on Tuesday afternoon, Defensor said the province considers putting up additional sanitary landfills in more towns.

The establishment of a sanitary landfill in a local government unit is in compliance with the Republic Act 9003, or the Solid Waste Management Act of 2000.

The province anticipates that there will come a time the sanitary landfill in Iloilo City can no longer accommodate wastes from towns in metro Iloilo like Oton, Leganes, Santa Barbara, and Pavia.

"The long-term solution is to identify clustered municipalities where we can put up sanitary landfill that is acceptable with the laws and regulations," Defensor said.

The municipalities will be clustered based on their geographical location.

The challenge, however, is that sanitary landfills are not yet "socially acceptable" in some municipalities.

"The original plan is clustering per district. Some of the mayors allow sanitary landfills in their municipalities but the locals in the area or villages where the sanitary landfill will be established seemed to disallow it," Cangrejo said.

Given this scenario, Defensor said that municipal mayors have committed to targeting the supply side.

“We agreed in principle to reduce the supply side. We proposed to the mayors and we do agree to come up with an ordinance that can help our Sangguniang Panlalawigan on ways to radically reduce garbage,” Defensor said.

The reduction of garbage use is already stipulated in the existing Environmental Code of the province.

Defensor said that some of the mayors are unaware of the Environmental Code and the gathering of mayors and environmental officers was helpful to disseminate the Environmental Code at the local government level.

Cangrejo explained that Section 30 of the Environmental Code pushes for the “gradual ban of styrofoam and plastic materials”.

“Maybe we can improve on that for it to become doable. It will be hard for us to implement in the province if we don’t get the help of our local government units,” he said.

The meeting held on Tuesday afternoon was the “first of many meetings” the provincial government will hold to address the problem on wastes. (PNA)

 

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