2 groups focus on wastes as climate change mitigation

TWO private groups are pushing for a cleaner environment in Davao City through the Climate Change Program of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) that will focus on waste water disposal, solid waste management and air pollution management.

These are the Clean Cities Davao Coalition (CCDC) and Association of Pollution Control Officers in Mindanao (Aspcom).

Vir Sangutan, president of Clean Cities Davao Coalition, speaking in Monday's Kapehan sa Dabaw at SM City, said there are five model cities for this program: Davao, Makati, Marikina, Baguio and Iloilo.

But they would need a climate change ordinance passed by the Davao City Council to fully-implement this program.

Former City Councilor Leonardo Avila III started drafting such ordinance, but this was not completed in time.

Engineer Eddie Fuertes, vice president of the CCDC and president of the Aspcom, said the city still has fresh air, but migration of people is growing by leaps and bounds, which can stretch the holding capacity of the city.

The fresh air and typhoon-free climate, aside from growing number of opportunities, are pushing a lot of people to seek residence in the city.

Meanwhile, Fuertes said, Aspcom is encouraging companies to employ at least one pollution control officer (PCO) to keep track of their wastes and reduce pollution.

"Mangayo man na sila og tabang kung unsaon pagpasa sa standards (These industries will always ask for help to know how to meet the standards in waste water disposal)," he said, thus the need for a point person to tackle these concerns on a company per company basis.

Davao Region has around 1,000 PCOs employed in many industries, adding that there is a growing demand for PCOs.

"Kung walay PCO, posible ma-revoke ilang business permit (If the company has no PCO, there's a possibility that their business permit will be revoked," he said, adding that monitoring is done by the Environmental Management Board (EMB) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in Davao region.

Sangutan said part of the contribution of the CCDC is the passage of Republic Act (RA) 9367 or the Biofuel Law, an act directing the use of biofuels.

RA 9367 mandates all gasoline stations in the country to add at least two percent of biofuel in their gasoline for cleaner emission and reduction in the demand for fossil fuel.