THE Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR)- Environment Management Board (EMB) will conduct a seminar for the members of Solid Waste Action Team (Swat) and Solid Waste Educators and Enforcement Team (Sweet) on May 3 and 4.

Bacolod City Vice Mayor El Cid Familiaran said the seminar will be held at the Government Center and after the seminar, the Swat and Sweet will be deputized to arrest the waste segregation violators in various barangays.

He said from March 2 to April 18, a total of 52 barangays have violated the "no segregation, no collection" policy.

These are Barangays 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7,, 8, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19, 20, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 38, 39, 40, Alijis, Banago, Bata, Cabug, Estefania, Granada, Handumanan, Mandalagan, Montevista, Pahanocoy, Punta Taytay, Singcang-Airport, Sum-ag, Taculing, Tangub, Villamonte, and Vista Alegre.

The lists of erring villages were already forwarded to the DENR-EMB to impose the penalty.

“As of now, only the DENR-EMB is authorized to impose the penalty on the violators,” Familiaran said.

The DENR-EMB was tasked to impose the penalty to the erring villages for violation of waste segregation in relation to the implementation of the Republic Act 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Program.

The erring villages engaged in illegal dumping and it was documented by the Swat and Sweet team for a violation of waste segregation law.

Familiaran said most of the city residents are not complying with the segregation policy, adding Bacolod is still "zero" in terms of compliance.

This is based on the report of garbage hauler IPM-Construction and Development Corp. (IPM-CDC) that majority of the households in various villages have no compliance, he added. (MAP)