SECRETARY Gina Lopez of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) will officially open and inaugurate the Iloilo City’s engineered sanitary landfill facility in Barangay Calajunan, Mandurriao district, on Saturday, August 27.
Joren Sartorio, chief of the city General Services Office (GSO), said the DENR chief will inspect the P200-million facility covering 3.3 hectares inside the 23-hectare Calajunan open dumpsite owned by the City Government.
Sartorio said the sanitary landfill project of the City is mandated by provisions of Republic Act (RA) 9003 or the Solid Waste Management Act that prohibits open dumpsite of garbage collected by the local government unit.
The sanitary landfill facility was realized with a loan from the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) in 2014.
The project is a joint venture undertaking by two contractors, namely, Persons and Sta. Clara, and includes several cell sites, ponds, wash bay and water treatment of the leachate from garbage water that will eventually drain at the nearby Calajunan Creek.
The GSO is also requesting the Environment and Management Bureau (EMB) of DENR to conduct water testing and determine the water quality to be drained toward the creek.
Iloilo City is producing 260 metric tons of garbage everyday and only residual or excess wastes are to be dumped at the landfill facility.
The rest of the garbage are biodegradable and made into compost used as fertilizer, or already segregated at source as recyclables.
An organization of women garbage salvagers was organized two years ago as producers of fancy jewelry items and household decors.
Some of the products are sold in the local markets and exported to Saudi Arabia for overseas Filipinos.