CEBU City Vice Mayor Raymond Alvin Garcia is proposing to create an ordinance that will charge households and business establishments a service fee for the treatment of wastewater before it is discharged to the city’s major rivers and the sea.
During the second leg of the Cebu Water Summit on March 28, 2023 at Bai Hotel Cebu, Garcia said the high level of coliform in the seven major rivers and waterways of the city was very concerning.
He said there were rivers (which he did not specify) in the city that yielded 20,000 most probable number (MPN) per 100 milliliters (ml) to 20 million MPN per 100 ml of coliform concentration from the allowable 200 MPN/100 ml in accordance with the standards set by the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB).
The presence of coliform in water indicates fecal pollution.
Garcia said this was caused by the inadequate restrooms and rampant disposal of solid waste and waste water straight into the city’s rivers, particularly by informal settlers and business establishments along the river’s edge.
He added that the absence also of a centralized sewage and wastewater treatment facility in the City has worsened the situation.
These wastes from households and some business establishments that were discharged and mixed into the city’s rivers, then directly flowed into coastal waters and the sea.
These concerns have affected the plans to develop the city’s coastal area and tourism.
“We are planning to make a waterfront development project. We can have a boardwalk, people walking around, having a picnic. Then our seas are that dirty,” said Garcia, who is the chairman of the Cebu City Waterfront Development Commission.
To address the problem, the official said a Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) must be constructed at the end part of the city’s major waterways. However, he admits that this will be expensive.
He said an estimated P200 million is needed to build a single STP.
Thus, he suggested funding the proposed project through public-private partnerships (PPP), inspired by the same project in a municipality in Palawan.
Through PPP, wastewater from the inland part of the city will be treated by the STP before it is discharged into the sea.
The service fee he proposed would be used as payment for the services provided by the STP through the PPP.
“If we can enter into a PPP with a company, precisely to put an STP before throwing it (waste) into the sea, then we will just pay a service fee, ang (the) Cebu City (government). We collect the money from constituents through a form of a service fee, and then we will pay money into the PPP,” Garcia said.