WITH cell 3 of its Alno Engineered Sanitary Landfill already filled to the brim, La Trinidad may soon experience garbage crisis.
Engineer Christian Dongbo of the Municipal Engineering Office said cell 3 has reached its maximum capacity of 67,600 cubic meters.
"Starting August 20, dumping in cell 3 have stopped," Dongbo said.
In addition, ongoing expansion of cell three with a 3,800 square meters area has also been halted due to the bad weather.
Dongbo added the expansion of cell 3 may be completed until December this year.
Meanwhile, in a bid to temporarily solve the garbage problem, a portion of cell 1 was renovated and utilized as temporary dumpsite which started on Monday.
Alno ESL's total area is 235,600 cubic meters divided into four cells. Cell 3 was utilized as a landfill in February 1, 2017 in a bid to solve the garbage woes in the municipality.
According to a recent report by the Municipal Environment and Natural Resources Office (Menro), from January to April this year, an increase of unsegregated waste was recorded.
Since cell 3 opened February 2017, a total of 31.5 tons of waste had been collected.
La Trinidad Mayor Romeo Salda remains hopeful the ongoing expansion of cell 3 may soon be fast tracked.
In case the Alno dumpsite gets packed, a P1 million was set aside this year for emergency hauling of garbage, Salda added.
With the growing number of garbage in the valley, the Bantay Basura program was also implemented which prohibit untimely disposal of waste, non-segregation, open dumping, improper garbage storage system and burning of garbage.
Implementation of the program started on October 15, 2016. In 2018, the local government unit allotted P2.9 million which aimed to decrease waste at 20 tons per day.
This year, the Benguet capital town implemented the regulation of plastic but Menro officer Arthur Pedro said the municipality is in the transition period, thus the impact of the ordinance has yet to be seen.
