Tuba trash site set as tourist attraction

TUBA, Benguet – The municipal government here is set to build a trash site here which would be promoted as a tourist attraction.

Local officials have intensified information drive among residents of Barangay Taloy Sur here along Marcos Highway on benefits of hosting an engineered sanitary landfill over a 2.3-hectare area which was purchased from a private individual.

The town’s plan to construct its own engineered sanitary landfill in the area will come way ahead of Baguio City, a highly urbanized city which is having serious problems on establishment of its own trash facility.

Aside from being an engineered sanitary landfill site, municipal officials claimed the purchased property will be converted into an ecotourism area as tourist attraction for the thousands of motorists plying Marcos Highway daily.

Initially, the local government allocated P2 million for the purchase of the lot and for the conduct of initial development works while looking for a counterpart fund from the provincial government of Benguet to complete the noble solid waste management project.

Tuba will be the second town in this vegetable-producing province to put up its own engineered sanitary landfill next to the capital town of La Trinidad.

Because of the increasing garbage in the different villages caused by the rapid rise in population, local officials urged their constituents to effectively segregate garbage at source and properly dump the same in their waste disposal sites in order to prevent solid waste management problems in the future.

According to them, segregation of garbage at sources will help reduce the solid waste by a substantial volume and will prevent the occurrence of problems in the future.

Based on studies conducted by technical personnel from the local government and concerned national government agencies, the 2.3-hectare purchased property is a suitable site to put up the town’s sanitary landfill because of its proximity to the highway and far distant from residential communities.

The local government is trying its best to comply with provisions of Republic Act 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act to prevent the local officials from being administratively and criminally charged by the National Solid Waste Commission.— Dexter A. See