Baguio abandons bid to set up own landfill

BAGUIO CITY — The city government here abandoned construction of a sanitary landfill in Barangay Sto. Tomas Apugan here because of inability of local officials to handle growing opposition to the plan and absence of a long-term solution to the worsening garbage problem in the city.

The admission made by Mayor Reinaldo A. Bautista Jr., adding the local government will instead pursue construction of 116 garbage recovery facilities in different villages in to minimize huge volume of solid waste piling up along the main roads and in villages.

At present, the city has only three material recovery facilities serving 12 adjacent villages, especially in addressing the tons of wastes from their residences over the past several weeks.

The local chief executive promised President Arroyo in her recent visit here that the city government will shell out at least P13 million provided that the national government will release its P8.6 million counterpart for the realization of the long overdue project.

The Cordillera office of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources estimated at least P180,000 is needed to complete a material recovery facility with an area of approximately 120 square meters.

Bautista claimed the city is already tired of the numerous problems they have been encountering in the search for a permanent site of the city’s sanitary landfill, thus, the best option is to pursue available practical plans which is to set up the needed materials recovery facilities.

Once the 116 materials recovery facilities will have been constructed, DENR-CAR officials predicted that over 80 percent of the city’s garbage problem will be addressed while the remaining 15 percent will be left to the care of the city government to dispose by whatever means.

The city is still encountering problems on how to dispose its 280 tons of solid waste daily after thousands of residents from various parts of the city and Tuba, Benguet barricaded the main gate of the Irisan open dumpsite because of the continuous failure of the city government to comply with its previous commitment to use the area as a transfer station for garbage to be hauled out of the city only.

However, the residents alleged that the city has been dumping the collected mixed garbage at the dumpsite, which poses a threat to the health of the residents living near the dumpsite as well as the state of the environment.