Davao City seeks ₧3.5-B fund support for WTE pilot project

DAVAO CITY—THE Davao City Hall may need an additional P3.5 billion funding from the national government to push through with the pilot area implementation for a Waste-to-energy (WTE) facility.

Assistant City Administrator, lawyer Tristan Dwight Domingo, said the city government has entered into partnership with national government agencies, such as the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), to comply with requirements set by the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) Board.

He said that the city would need an estimated P3.5 billion from the national government to finish or fully fund the entire construction of the facility. The Japanese government earlier gave P2.5 billion for the project.

“As one of the conditions of the grant donation from the Japanese Government, a more in-depth feasibility study was done to check the financial viability of the project as well its compliance to governing and applicable Philippine and international standards on WTE and similar facilities,” Domingo said.

“We are coordinating with DENR and just recently the city wrote DENR to follow-up on the plans to form a Technical Working Group [TWG] for the project,” he said, adding that the TWG will be composed of local government unit official project team, DENR and Environmental Management Burea officials and concerned departments and offices.

Domingo added that the partnership with DENR is vital as the funding from the national government would be coursed through the DENR, “the project being one of the pilot WTE projects in the country.”