A WEEK after Cagayan de Oro City suffered from flooding, mounds of garbage still lie uncollected in many areas of the city.
City Local Environment and Natural Resources Office (Clenro) chief Edwin Dael said garbage especially in areas affected by the floods has doubled compounding the city’s solid waste management problem.
Elvisa Mabelin, division chief of the Solid Waste Management Division of Clenro, identified barangays Lapasan, Camaman-an, Puerto, Cugman as the areas where the amount of garbage doubled.
"Aside sa usual nga basura nga gina-release sa mga tao, double tungod kay ang mga nangabasa na mga gamit sa mga balay, maoy gipanglabay napud karon so mao ning ongoing pa ang collection nato (Aside from the usual trash that people release, it doubled because the damped household stuff were being thrown and our collection is ongoing)," he said.
Mabelin said they had to use open trucks and payloaders in some areas compared to the normal trucks used in the everyday collection because of the increased volume of the garbage.
She said last week and this week's garbage collection is the highest so far.
"Actually dili man kulang atong trucks, ang reason lang gyud nganong sa uban areas dili pa makolekta is tungod gyud siya sa kadako sa volume sa basura, dili nato maapas. Another pud, is ang mga residente dili gina-isa ang paglabay, tingi-tingi ilang style so mao ng uban balikan napud. Gani, na-alter ang schedule sa garbage collection, wala nay night or day shifts kay diritso-diritso na gyud siya nga collection (Our trucks are not lacking. The reason why other areas can't collect yet is because the volume of the garbage is too big that we can't keep up. Another is that residents do not throw trash in one go. The garbage collection has been altered. No day or night shifts since garbage collection will be continuous)," she said.
Also, the trucks owned by the barangays in garbage collection are being utilized for other purposes such as evacuating residents or delivering relief goods.
Mabelin is urging the communities to help them in cleaning streets, by collecting the mud and other debris brought by the floods in sacks.
Presently, the city wastes are still dumped at the open dumpsite in Zayas landfill, but Mabelin said this would not affect the ongoing rehabilitation of the said dumpsite as a small area is only occupied dedicated to the dumping of wastes.
She said in May this year, the city will start to dump wastes in the newly engineered landfill in Barangay Pagalungan.