WHILE the Cebu City Government claimed that garbage collection in the city improved after the reopening of the Inayawan Sanitary Landfill, a barangay is planning to declare a state of calamity because of their garbage problem.
Apas Barangay Councilor Allan Mahait said he is proposing to place their village under a state of calamity to allow them to use their calamity fund to pay for tipping fees.
They plan to resume dumping their garbage in a private landfill in Consolacion.
Mahait said they were not able to deliver their garbage to the City’s landfill yesterday after the backhoe there conked out.
“Problema gyod mi diri kay kaganiha (yesterday) kay ang among upat ka garbage trucks gipabalik kay wala kunoy krudo ug guba pa ang backhoe sa Inayawan (It’s a problem for us because yesterday, we sent four trucks to dump garbage in Inayawan but they sent it back because their backhoe bogged down and ran out of fuel,” he said.
Since Friday, after the heavy downpour in the city, Mahait said several tons of garbage accumulated in their barangay, but only four of their five garbage trucks were operational.
To cover the backlog, Mahait said they dumped their garbage in Consolacion.
Their truck drivers were allowed to dump garbage in the private landfill since the City Government still has some P100,000 in tipping fees paid to the operator, which remains unused, he said.
If the City won’t allow them to use the advance payment for tipping fees, Mahait said the barangay will shoulder the cost of dumping garbage there.
The barangay council of Apas will convene today.
As this developed, Department of Public Services (DPS) acting chief John Paul Gelasque admitted that they encountered several problems in the reopening of the landfill, but these were minor.
Gelasque said there are some trucks that were not allowed to enter the landfill whenever repair work on the service road leading to the dumping area is ongoing.
“If there is no problem, we let the trucks dump garbage here but if the road needs to be fixed, of course we have to ask them not to enter the landfill),” he said.
Since the reopening of the landfill, Gelasque said the City was able to save P250,000 per day in tipping fees alone.
Every day, DPS collects at least 400 tons of garbage.
Gelasque said garbage collection in the city has improved, especially since they have strictly implemented the “no segregation, no collection” policy.
Gelasque said they are still finalizing the schedule when the garbage trucks can throw their collected wastes at the landfill.
At present, trucks can enter the landfill from 12 midnight to 6 a.m.