THE Davao City Environment and Natural Resources Office (Cenro) is urged to strictly segregate the solid wastes being collected from every village for the efficient operation of the sanitary landfill in New Carmen Village, Tugbok District, while waiting for the establishment of a new sanitary dumpsite in the city.
Alnulfo Alvarez, the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB)-Davao Region-ecological solid management section chief, said the current sanitary landfill in the city has lapses in maintaining proper waste management due to mixed waste accumulated by Cenro and has made facility operators unable to properly process the wastes.
"The problem in the sanitary landfill actually rooted from the wrong garbage collection from every barangay," he said.
Garbage collectors of the Cenro, Alvarez said, should start the proper waste segregation upon collecting the wastes from the villages before dumping it to the sanitary landfill.
In the latest audit report of the Commission on Audit, it found that the residents from Dumoy, Calinan Proper, Matina Pangi, and Indangan admitted that Cenro permitted the collection of mixed waste.
COA said Cenro failed to comply with its requirement to properly segregate the non-biodegradable wastes from biodegradable in promoting the re-use of resources.
Alvarez said the sanitary landfill collects 700 tons of wastes daily where 60 percent of the collection is composed of biodegradable materials.
"With that, the landfill usually does not segregate the non-decomposing materials from the biodegradable wastes anymore considering that they receive huge amount of wastes daily," he said.
As the sanitary landfill is also experiencing deluge of wastes due to its inefficiency to consistently process the wastes that have piled up for months, Alvarez said proper segregation by Cenro would still be beneficial for the continuous operation in the sanitary landfill in Tugbok.
Last March, City Planning and Development Office head Ivan Cortez siad the city government is already scouting vacant lands in the city for the establishment of additional two sanitary landfills with P134 million budget allocated for the acquisition of two five-hectare areas and needed equipment. BSC