THE type of waste the Dabawenyos are throwing will be monitored monthly for a year as part of the feasibility study for the waste to energy (WTE) project in partnership with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) and Kitakyushu City, Japan.
City Environment and Natural Resources Office Head Engineer Eliza Madrazo said during last week’s media forum that different meetings were conducted with representatives of Kitakyushu last January 25 for the grassroots program and one-year study of kinds of waste generated from the barangays.
Madrazo said Davao City cannot avail the WTE unless the city can comply with mandatory segregation, which means citizens should not throw mixed waste, and this info drive is pushed through the grassroots program.
"This is why we have partnership with Kitakyushu City with the grassroots program," Madrazo said, adding that one year grassroots program and one year waste analysis will be done to ensure that putting up WTE is feasible.
“They said before that it is already feasible but they are conducting study to determine the projection of waste, with the increase of population of the city and other additional developments,” Madrazo said.
The city environment office already organized barangay officials, one representative per district to access the data needed.
“The kinds of waste which can be fed to the facility are still being identified, and this is where the grassroots program can help,” Madrazo added.
Representatives from Kitakyushu will arrive in the city to get sample waste from the sanitary land fill.
“They will check if our present waste is viable, and they will also see the percentage of the waste that can be used for the WTE machine,” she said.
Madrazo said the waste disposal would be a big factor whether the city can avail the project.
“The project will depend on the waste that they will accept, so we are also doing waste characterization per barangay,” she added. (KVC)