WAITING FOR TRASH. Scavengers wait as a truck dumps garbage at the city sanitary landfill in Upper Dagong, Barangay Carmen. City hall would close the open dumpsite and develop a new one in Pagalungan. (GSD File PHOTO BY NITZ ARANCON)
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By NITZ ARANCON
and LITO RULONA
Correspondents

 

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CITY hall would slowly be developing a 33-hectare property in Pagalungan into a modern sanitary landfill at a projected cost of P600 million to P700 million.

City  Local Environment and Natural Resources Office (Clenro) chief Edwin Dael said the barangay already given the project the go-ahead.

Dael said the 33 hectares, owned by at least five families, are situated in Sitio Bugo, Barangay Pagalungan.

“There is an offer to sell it to city hall,” Dael said.

But initially, Dael said, city hall plans to spend some P100 million to develop five of the 33-hectare property. The development would include setting up the gas vent,  liners, and the construction of a drainage system and amenities.

The first phase would be done within six months so that city hall could comply with the order of the Office of the Ombudsman to close down the 17-hectare open dump site in Upper Dagong, Barangay Carmen.

Dael said the entire project would be very costly, the reason why it would be implemented one phase at a time.

“Ang usa ka cell niini nga project or first phase mokabat sa five hectaresug mogasto kini samore or less P100 million,”   he said.

Dael said the Pagalungan project would be carried out while city hall slowly shuts down the open dumpsite in Carmen.

Last week, the panel of investigators from ombudsman ordered Mayor Oscar Moreno and other local officials to shut down the present city dump because its continued operation is a violation of the solid waste management law. The open dumpsite has long been posing threats to public health and the environment.

Dael said the planned Pagalungan project was given a certificate of social acceptability during the Oct. 6, 2016 barangay assembly under the supervision of the Department of  Interior and Local Government (DILG).

Dael said city hall is bent on completing the first phase of the project in six months so it could comply with RA 9003 or the Solid Waste Management Act.

He said the project should have started during the first three-year term of the Moreno administration had the previous city council cooperated.

Dael however said city hall was able to partially close down for rehabilitation 10 of the 17-hectare open dumpsite despite the “extreme obstructionism” in the city council during Moreno’s first office term.

“Galisod kita ilabi na kay wala kita supportahe sa city council. But this time, we are optimistic that it can be done quickly,” he said.

He said the Ombudsman wants the remaining seven hectares closed down by May 2017 or else.

On Monday, the city council approved Ordinance no. 13129-2016, approving the “Updated Safe Closure and Rehabilitation Plan” for the city dump in Upper Dagong, Barangay Carmen.

City hall’s 10-year solid waste management plan is aimed at providing an adequate and environmentally sound disposal facility for solid wastes generated in the city.

Some P100 million has been set aside under Supplemental Budget no. 1 for  a new sanitary landfill. The budget would cover expenses for technical and environmental assessment and detailed engineering design, lot acquisition and the initial establishment of a cell.

Another P100 million has been proposed under the 2017 Executive Budget for the full implementation of the project.

The ordinance was endorsed and reviewed by the committees on environment and natural resources, and on laws and rules chaired by Councilors Zaldy Ocon and Ian Mark Nacaya, respectively.

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