REPRESENTATIVES from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) Grassroots Kitakyushu Team visited barangays in the city to further discuss the P2.5-billion waste-to-energy (WTE) technology project to be implemented in the city.

Yasumitsu Kondo of Kitakyushu International Association, an associate of Jica, in an interview with reporters Thursday, December 13, said they are tasked by their City Government to help implement waste segregation.

“Jica has funded us for the improvement of solid waste management in Davao City. For more than a year already, we visited 10 times in the city with staff from the City Environment and Natural Resources (Cenro) and some barangay captains,” Yasumitsu said.

The WTE plant converts municipal and industrial solid waste into electricity and heat for industrial processing and for district heating systems and that it works by burning waste at high temperatures and using the heat to make steam and then drives a turbine that creates electricity.

Davao City Councilor Marissa Abella said the amount granted to the City will be downloaded by the Japanese government to fund the project as soon as all required ordinances about the sisterhood of two cities will be approved by the City Council.

“This WTE project was being introduced last 2014 by JICA. After four years of feasibility study, it is found out feasible. So there is an undergoing processing of papers,” Councilor Marissa Abella said in an interview with SunStar Davao Thursday.

“Everything they know about environment will be taught here in the city and their grassroots activities will be implemented here also,” she said.

The City is targeting the property in Barangay Biao Eskwela, Tugbok District for the WTE plant and other facilities to be located.

Meanwhile, Barangay League president Councilor Edgar Ibuyan Sr. said his office will have to learn first the technology so that they could help with the information dissemination in the 182 barangays in the city.