BAGUIO City Mayor Mauricio Domogan is hoping the City of Pines' problem on garbage disposal and management will be solved before his third term ends next year.
Domogan has ordered the Baguio City Engineering Office (BCEO) to immediately complete the survey of a property in Itogon, Benguet that private mining firm Benguet Corporation is turning over to the Baguio City government through a deed of usufruct.
The Baguio City government is eyeing to transform one hectare of that property into an engineered sanitary landfill (ESL), where the city could dump its wastes.
At present, Baguio is hauling its wastes to Urdaneta, Pangasinan and to a private ESL in Capaz, Tarlac.
Domogan said the deed of usufruct will be signed once the survey is completed.
This would pave the way for the submission of the city's plans to the Environmental Management Bureau for the issuance of an Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC).
He said the ECC would then let the city government proceed with its ESL project and eventually stop the hauling of its wastes to other provinces.
The mayor said the Baguio city government has so far spent over P1 billion over the past 10 years to dispose of its wastes at the private landfill in Tarlac.
“We need to come up with a lasting solution to the city’s garbage problem the soonest because it has eaten up a huge chunk of our finances for over a decade now,” Domogan said.
Domogan cited the city has a property in upland Sto. Tomas town in Benguet, which is feasible for a landfill project but it would cost the city P210 million for the construction of the access road alone.
Aside from the cost, he added, another constraint is the inhabitants of the area.
Domogan said the city government is also studying alternative garbage disposal technologies to be incorporated in its planned engineered sanitary landfill.
Among the technological proposals, he said, are waste-to-energy, anaerobic digester, and other environment-friendly and acceptable technologies.