THE Cagayan de Oro City Government will be opening the engineered sanitary landfill in Pagalungan village this April 15, the day it will close the city’s open dumpsite in Zayas, Carmen village.
Elvisa Mabelin, head of the city's Solid Waste Management team, said the new landfill is a P600 million, 45-hectares facility but initially, only one hectare will be opened as the flattening of the area is still ongoing.
Mabelin said the city generates 560 tons of garbage per day, however, only the 360 tons is dumped in the landfill, since the 200 tons are placed in junk shops or in the barangays practicing Material Recovery Facility (MRF).
He added they target that only 23 percent of the 360 tons garbage generation per day, should be dumped in the new landfill.
These residual wastes, she said, should be those non-recyclable materials, adding that the recyclable materials should be dumped in the barangays’ own MRFs.
The City Local Environment and Natural Resources Office (Clenro) Chief Edwin Dael said they have divided the whole area of the new landfill by four cells, and the one which opens this April is designed to last for 5 years.
“Ang RA (Republic Act) 9003 naka-stipulate gyud didto nga ang barangay gyud ang mo-manage sa basura, the government ang mag-maintain lang sa sanitary landfill ug mag-manage sa residual waste collection, so kinahanglan gyud naay material recovery facility pero tabangan namo sila sa pagput-up niini (According to RA 9003, the barangay should be the one to manage the garbage while the government will maintain the sanitary landfill and manage the residual waste collection. So it is important to have a material recovery facility but we will help them in putting it up),” he said.
Dael warns that unresponsive and non-compliant villages will be sued for violation of the RA 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Program.
The Clenro chief said for the past months, they have been holding information education seminars to village officials and require them to make an action plan of their own MRF.
“So far, atong tan-aw, dili lang man papel lang pud ang ilang pag-participate (their participation is not only through paper), we see their determination to push the establishment of their MRFs, because we will really sue them if they won't cooperate,” Dael said.
In the case of the old dumpsite, engineer Kenneth Valde of the City Engineering Office said residents might still have to endure the smell a little longer because the closure is still a long process.
Valde said gas vents, lecheate ponds, drainages, must be installed, adding that numerous tree planting activities will still have to be conducted before the dumpsite will be declared closed and rehabilitated.
“Dugay pa ayha siya ma totally close, kay butangan pa (It will take a long time before the dumpsite will be totally close since) gas vents, lecheate collections or ponds, drainage will be installed. But we target that by May this year, the area will be fenced, and totally closed,” Valde said.
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