UNDERVIEW

Mike Guimbatan Jr.
Recyclable wastes in our head

A published picture of a house using its rooftop as dumping area of recyclable wastes tells the whole picture of our local waste management system -- the City is in danger of health and sanitation hazards yet recycled city officials atop city hall do not yet have a definite program except to waste P30 million expensive hauling to Tarlac in the next four months.

Here’s the garbage quarrel of the century. After the Irisan dumpsite barricade, the mayor commissioned metro waste to gather and dispose waste to Tarlac at P24, 000 per haul per truck. The council questioned the deal because it is expensive and there was no bidding, they allowed a group of local sand and gravel haulers to take over the hauling and allocated a budget. The Mayor says communities along the road to Tarlac complain of garbage stench emitting from trucks of local haulers. The mayor vetoes the special budget for hauling. Several alternative dumping sites were identified but remains under study.

The people don’t know what lasting solution was adapted by the city government to ensure an efficient garbage collection and disposal system. Here’s the adapted solution by our honorable officials. There will be daily collection of waste at the central business district while it will be once a week at the barangays.

Residents should segregate their waste and only residuals will be collected but CBD wastes will be collected whether segregated or not. Residents should compost their biodegradable wastes and they willingly complied even if thickly populated residential areas do not have any open space for composting because every space is cemented and maximized to accommodate the growing population.

While the CBD looks clean, residential areas are not because wastes are kept in their homes unless given the go signal to bring out from their barangay officials. Residents who can not endure the stench of decaying biodegradables will bring their waste within the CBD collection or throw it along nearby uninhabited place or roadsides. Meanwhile, one side of the Irisan dumpsite is in danger of collapsing and heavy rains brought by the string of typhoons portends the inevitable.

After over a month of garbage talk and grandstanding among policy level officials, residents are still at a quandary on what to do with their garbage. Public opinion now demands constant update on what they expect from their honorable leaders. They want to know the term of reference or time table of a lasting solution to the garbage crisis.

The city council and the office of the mayor should now set aside their garbage differences and prioritize the health and welfare of their voters instead. Baguio residents are cooperating and some are even willing for an increased service fees for garbage disposal for as long as a working system should be in place.

But residents are getting restless with piles of garbage in their homes while millions are spent to export residual wastes in a faraway place. For when public opinion does not get heard, the real trash might actually be the heads of the city. Then can we say that the picture of recyclable waste dumped atop a building represent the sorry state of garbage management in the city.