DAGUPAN City will soon open a modern solid waste facility, the first in Asia, with the eventual closure of its 50-year-old dumpsite in compliance with Republic Act 9003, or the “Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000.”
Mayor Belen Fernandez said this became more certain after President Benigno Aquino III, in his last official act before stepping down from Malacanang, issued Proclamation 1302, series of 2016, amending Proclamation 98, series of 1963 issued by then President Diosdado Macapagal, that segregated 19,261 square meters of public land declared as parks and playgrounds in Bonuan Binloc for waste management facility purposes of the city government.
In her inaugural address on Thursday, Fernandez said the signing of the proclamation by President Aquino last June 23 will pave the way for the establishment by the city of its waste-to-worth facility, thereby hastening the impending closure and clean-up of the old dumpsite in Bonuan.
The facility, to be built at no cost at all to the city, will convert garbage collected daily from homes, markets, schools and factories, into diesel fuel for jeepneys and motor boats as well as biogas to be used for cooking and lighting in homes.
“Not only that, we will also help the world environment by making sure that our garbage, our plastic debris will not pollute our oceans. This will in turn, allow us to bring Dagupan’s beaches back to their former beauty and glory,” she said.
The USD8.2-million waste-to-worth project will be established with the help of Procter and Gamble, the US State Department, International Ocean Conservancy, Asian Development Bank (ADB), United Nations (UN) and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).
Last year, Fernandez was invited as resource speaker in the World Ocean forum in Chile that discussed among others the establishment of the waste to-worth facility that will make Dagupan eventually as model of this project in the whole world.
The old dumpsite is generating some 30 metric tons of wastes daily, which is the minimum requirement to run the plant. The wastes can be turned into liquid form as fuel for vehicles, same as diesel, and biogas.
Fernandez said the scavengers who would be displaced with the closure of the dumpsite would be resettled in row houses in Sito Korea, Bonuan Binloc. A day-care center was also built in the area for their children.
Once the facility becomes operational, the scavengers will be among the first to be hired to work in the facility. (PNA)