THE City Local Environment and Natural Resources Office (Clenro) on Thursday appealed to the city council to seriously consider increasing city hall’s budget for garbage collection given the risks the city dump in Carmen is posing. Edwin Dael, Clenro head, issued the appeal even as he repeated a warning he made early this year: the city dump is a “time bomb.” The Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) has repeatedly asked city hall to close down the 17-hectare sanitary landfill because of the health and environment hazards. The EMB has been warning city hall since the previous administration. Dael said city hall’s P60-million budget for garbage collection, or P5 million a month, was insufficient. He said the Clenro had sought a budget P72 million for this year but the city council only approved P60 million. He said, ideally, city hall would be able to work on a P5.5-million monthly budget or P72 million for the entire year to improve garbage collection in the city. He reiterated a call he made months ago about the need to close down the present sanitary landfill so it could be rehabilitated, and so the local government could open a new one in Barangay Pagatpat. Early this year, Dael told the Gold Star Daily that the present city dump has already accumulated too much toxic waste that pose serious health risks. In the same interview with this paper months ago, Dael also warned of explosions and fire at the sanitary landfill as a result of the methane gas build-up. Dael said the 17-hectare city dump has a capacity of 2.8 metric tons of garbage but it now exceeded 4 million metric tons. Dael and Solid Waste Management Division chief Elvisa Mabelin repeated the same warning during a news conference at city hall on Thursday. The two officials also asked the city council to approve the use of P38 million for city hall’s solid waste management program. The proposed fund, according to Dael, would be used for the second phase of the closure and rehabilitation of the city dump in Carmen. The officials said city hall has already started rehabilitating parts of the city dump under the first phase of the project. The undertaking costs some P22 million. (nitz arancon)