Baguio permanent trash site bared

By Dexter A. See

BAGUIO CITY – The city government is not abandoning the establishment of a multi-million sanitary landfill here at the Sto. Tomas Apugan-Camp 7 area but other short-term solutions will be implemented to reduce huge volume of garbage being hauled Capas, Tarlac which nearly drained the city’s finances over the past two years.

Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan bared this last week saying works were underway considering short-term solutions are now in place, particularly composting of biodegradable waste in Irisan and Loakan Liwanag barangays.

The purchase of two multi-million composting machines capable of converting 24 tons of biodegradable waste each into compost fertilizer daily, he added, would be done soon.
The city government was reportedly also about to buy 10 new garbage trucks to boost garbage collection in the city’s 128 barangays.

At the same time, Domogan said other temporary solutions to the garbage disposal problem of the city was utilization of Antamok open pit mine site, which is part of the mining claim of the Benguet Corp. in nearby Itogon town, as a temporary dumpsite while awaiting completion of the city’s engineered sanitary landfill in Sto. Tomas Apugan in the next two to three years.

From the previous 10 to 12 truckloads of garbage being hauled to Tarlac, the city government reduced the same to five to eight truckloads because waste disposal programs.

For just over two years, the local government spent over P300 million in public funds just to haul garbage to Tarlac after the city’s open dumpsite was prematurely closed due to the protests from irate residents whose concerns were not heard by the previous administration.

According to Domogan, neighboring towns must work together with the city in trying to solve their respective garbage problems to clean the environment rather than antagonize each other through unsolicited pieces of advice that will not help in contributing to the solution but instead worsen the problem.

He said the Antamok open pit mine site is a private property which has been previously identified as one of the proposed sites of a bigger landfill that could cater to the needs of the Baguio-La Trinidad-Itogon-Sablan-Tuba-Tublay (BLISTT) growth center.

In 19998, European urban planners identified the Antamok open pit mine as a suitable area where a sanitary landfill could be established that will address garbage woes of local governments but the same was never fulfilled because of the absence of sufficient funds to pursue the project.

Domogan reminded local residents to segregate waste at source so collectors will not have difficulty in collecting garbage once the local government will stand firm on the strict implementation of the no segregation, no collection policy to instill discipline among the people.