TO strengthen the cleanliness drive in the city, Cebu City Councilor Joel Garganera, together with a group of runners, will conduct a school-to-school campaign to encourage students to join his monthly environmental fun run.
Garganera along with 70 other participants, some of them members of the Philippine Army, conducted their 5th Run Basura Run Activity yesterday.
For the past four months, the participants collected trash in canals, alleys and gutters along the way.
Masks
This time, they wore masks as they toured the streets of Mabini, Colon, Barangay Pari-an and the areas around Arellano Blvd.
“The difference now is that we’re wearing masks as a sign of protest to the stench and continued operation of the landfill in Barangay Inayawan, despite having 13 violations,” Garganera told Sun.Star Cebu in a phone interview.
In a previous report, Department of Environment and Natural Resources 7 Environmental Management Bureau Director Engr. William Cuñado said the City Government violated conditions, including its failure to assess the complaints from residents about the order from the landfill.
Waste
The City also failed to put a layer of soil over the waste that has been disposed and compacted in the landfill.
It also failed to spray insecticide on the disposed waste at the landfill, which allowed flies to converge there.
Cuñado also called the City Government’s attention for failing to secure a discharge permit that would allow them to determine if the effluents coming from waste are within environmental standards.
As chairman of the committee on environment, Garganera said more than anything else, other than fighting for the closure of the landfill, he wants to inculcate in the minds of the young the importance of cleanliness.
“I want to make caring for the environment a daily habit among our kids. Even if it is as simple as picking up trash, it can already create a big difference,” he said.
Schools
With 380 private and public elementary and high schools in the city, he said a year of active participation would already create a huge impact.
Although he has yet to identify the pilot areas, he said they’ll start with schools in the urban area.
“We have to compartmentalize the areas. As long as people collect, the lesser the volume of trash we dump at the landfill everyday,” he said.
For the past weeks,students of the University of Cebu-Maritime Education and Training Center (UC-METC) in Barangay Mambaling have been forced to wear face masks while attending classes allegedly due to the foul smell coming from the re-opened landfill.
Several nearby business establishments have already complained about the stench and sought the help of Presidential Assistant for the Visayas Michael Diño.
This bolstered the plan of Garganera, to file a Writ of Kalikasan before the City Council so the facility will be shut down.