THE City Government of Bacolod will start the “no segregation, no collection” policy in a subdivision at Barangay Taculing on November 18.
Vice Mayor El Cid Familiaran, chairman of Solid Waste Action Team (Swat), said Barangay Taculing was the pilot area for the implementation of the waste segregation program in cooperation of its village chief, Councilor Lady Gles Gonzales-Pallen.
“The moment we educate all the people in the area, we will find another pilot barangay until we perfect the waste segregation program in the 61 barangays,” he said.
Familiaran recalled that last year, the city’s waste segregation program was a failure because residents are still not observing the proper ways of disposing of garbage.
The Swat team forwarded the lists of erring villages to the Environment Management Board (EMB) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) for the implementation of the penalties, however, until now they were not penalized.
The EMB-DENR was tasked to impose the penalty to the erring villages for violations of waste segregation in relation to the implementation of the Republic Act 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Program.
“We need the support and cooperation of the barangay officials because we already started this program. We should participate to perfect the implementation of the waste segregation program,” Familiaran said.
He said the barangay officials were tasked to penalize those who engaged in illegal dumping within their areas of jurisdiction.
“I expect that those who joined in the city’s Search for the Cleanest, Greenest, and Most Well-Managed Solid Waste Management (SWM) program will continue their support and cooperation in the implementation of waste segregation program,” he added.
Of the 61 barangays, Barangays 18 and Handumanan were the champion in the city’s clean and green contest.
“It’s part of the city’s waste segregation campaign and hopefully, before we will operate the sanitary landfill cell No.2 in Barangay Felisa, all the barangays should be compliant on the waste segregation,” Familiaran said.
He said the construction of sanitary landfill cell No.2 is expected to start in December.
Gonzales earlier said it’s a big challenge to be the pilot barangay in the waste segregation program.
“We will double our effort and this time, we will perform much better to be the top model barangay in Bacolod,” she said. (MAP)