Sunday, November 25, 2007 Admin ally urges City to clear Inayawan’s air
SOMETHING literally smells in Barangay Inayawan, and the Cebu City Government does not have money to stop it, a former consultant and administration party ally said.
Basak San Nicolas Barangay Captain-elect George Rama said the Inayawan landfill lacks deodorizers, equipment like a bulldozer to level the garbage, and limestone to cover the pile of wastes.
“The problem is that the City has no money. There’s no heavy equipment available. We need to buy one so that we don’t have to borrow,” he told Sun.Star Cebu.
Rama headed the City Council committee on social services from 2001 to 2004. He was made social services consultant, a position he gave up after the Oct. 29 barangay elections, where he ran unopposed.
He said that the City has to buy more deodorizers and new equipment if it wants to keep the stench at a tolerable level.
Complaints of the stench from the dumpsite came not only from Inayawan residents but also from residents of Talisay City.
In a separate interview, engineer Randy Navarro, landfill chief, said that when he took over last September, the City already bought its annual supply of 50 gallons of an organic deodorizer called Cymbio 5.
But with an average of two gallons per day, supply is running low even though spraying is not done every day.
Supplies
“We need to buy additional organic deodorizer. Three organic chemical suppliers conducted a testing here,” Navarro said.
He said the Cymbio 5 costs the City P5,000 per gallon. But since its supplier did not participate in the recent testing, what would be available are those priced at P6,000 per gallon.
“This is three-in-one: deodorizer, decomposer and disinfectant. While Cymbio 5 is only a deodorizer,” he said.
Navarro said their bulldozer, which bogged down for several days already, was in working condition only yesterday.
The equipment is needed to pave a road towards the garbage dump to level it, so it can be covered with limestone and methane gas can be sealed in.
Two months into the job, Navarro came up with a P33-million project proposal to cover the sanitary landfill with limestone layer after layer.
If prevented from escaping upwards, the methane will be directed toward the Philippine Bio-Sciences Corp. Inc. (PhilBio) P16-million waste-to-energy (WTE) treatment facility, generating cheap electricity for the city, Navarro said.
The facility, which will be inaugurated Wednesday next week, can provide 100 kilowatts to meet the landfill’s power needs.
Navarro said the City should buy a new bulldozer instead of surplus or reconditioned ones, which don’t last.
The City Hall still has to pay back a foreign debt it incurred when it reclaimed Kawit Island for the 295-hectare South Road Properties (SRP).
Last September, Mayor Tomas Osmeña apologized to the barangay captains for the lack of support from the City Government because of its foreign debt.
He said the City is paying at least P500 million a year for the SRP loan, that’s why other projects were not funded.
He assured that the City’s “liquidity requirements” the next two years will be solved with the sale this year of a 30-hectare lot valued at P4.2 billion. (RHM)
