Inayawan execs appeal for lasting solution to landfill problem

SAYING that they no longer attract investors, officials of Barangay Inayawan asked the Cebu City Government to fast-track rehabilitation of the Inayawan Sanitary Landfill.

The Barangay Council, in a resolution approved in mass motion, asked the City to provide a long-term solution to address the landfill problem.

In their one-page resolution, Inayawan officials said that the barangay has been a host to the dump site for over a decade now and what they lost, such as investment and developments, outweighed the benefit that the landfill has brought.

“The barangay has earned the dubious distinction as the garbage dump of the city and as such cannot attract serious investors and developments,” the resolution stated.

It added that “the stench coming from the landfill permeates its immediate environs as well as that of the South Road Properties, thus, affecting its attractiveness to potential investors.”

The barangay officials said that failure to improve the City-owned and operated landfill poses danger to the health of their constituents, as well as to the environment.

“All types of waste including sludge from septic tanks and hospital waste, even body parts, find their way to the landfill while the leachate (or garbage juice) has penetrated bodies of water in the vicinity contributing to the growing threat to the health and well-being of our constituents, as well as that of the environment,” they said.

“The dumpsite also continuously generates methane to the atmosphere and sometimes is set on fire because of spontaneous combustion,” they added.

The City has no longer allowed all forms of dumping at the Inayawan landfill since December last year. A portion, however, of the 15.4-hectare facility is being used as a transfer station before garbage is finally sent to the landfill in Consolacion town.

The Inayawan officials are hoping that the City can come up with a long-term solution that is “well-planned and well-designed” to address the problem at the landfill.

The Cebu City Government earlier planned to construct a P4-billion waste-to-energy facility at the landfill to process all the wastes there, but it was opposed by some members of the City’s legislative body.