Wednesday, October 18, 2006 Osmeña: Common landfill for Metro Cebu By Antonio V. Osmeña Estatements
As the gross domestic product of Cebu grows, so does one of its major byproduct — garbage.
Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia and mayors of component cities of Metro Cebu need to consider today the problem of solid waste disposal. Metro Cebu must locate a sanitary landfill that could last for 50 years.
Areas near the Cebu City Inayawan landfill has become highly urbanized with the establishment of businesses at the South Road Properties, which is adjacent to the garbage disposal facility.
But the construction of a landfill in each city and municipality in Metro Cebu would cause environmental problems. It is important that the sanitary landfill be properly designed and managed or it could degenerate into an open dump.
The supposed-to-be sanitary landfill for the entire Metro Cebu is more like an open dump because it is unsightly, breeds disease-carrying pests, generates foul odor that cause air pollution when wastes are burned and could result in possible contamination of groundwater and surface water through leaching.
A sanitary landfill is a waste disposal site that is meant to minimize water pollution from runoff and leaching. Wastes are spread in thin layers, compacted and covered with soil to prevent it from becoming an eyesore and to minimize pests, disease, foul smell and water pollution.
An open dump, on the other hand, is a land disposal site where solid and liquid wastes are deposited and left uncovered, with little or no regard for control of scavengers, aesthetic, disease, and air and water pollution.
A common sanitary landfill for Metro Cebu, equipped with a resource recovery plant, is the most logical thing to implement.
What is solid waste? Solid waste is any useless unwanted or discarded material. It is yesterday’s newspaper and junk mail, dinner table scraps, raked leaves and grass clipping, nonreturnable bottles and cans, worn-out appliances and furniture, abandoned cars, animal manure, crop residue, food processing wastes, sewage sludge from waste treatment plant, fly ash from coal power plants, mining and industrial wastes and an array of other cast-off materials.
A common sanitary landfill for Metro Cebu has many advantages over existing dumpsites. Metro Cebu — which includes Naga, Minglanilla, Talisay City, Cebu City, Cordova, Lapu-Lapu City, Mandaue City, Consolacion, Liloan and Compostela — will, in a decade, become highly urbanized that each of their landfill could no longer accommodate solid wastes.
If properly designed and managed, a sanitary landfill can minimize pest population, disease, air pollution and water pollution problems. Methane gas produced by waste decomposition can be used as a fuel.
By itself, solid waste management is a multi-million peso industry.
There is a need to enact an enabling law to create the Metro Cebu Solid Waste Disposal Authority. The creation of the authority plays a very important role in the effective management of the sanitary landfill operation.
A centralized hauling operation of wastes by the authority, through direct coordination with each barangay, would ensure maximum waste collection efficiency.
The authority could eventually cover the entire island of Cebu.
MINE TAILINGS. Has Governor Garcia thought about solid waste disposal (of mine tailings) with the reopening of the copper mine in Toledo City? The previous mine operator used to throw the tailings to the ocean without proper treatment thus causing marine degradation.
Will the new mine operator do the same? Hopefully, the government will strictly monitor the proper disposal of mine tailings.
