Piles of uncollected trash

Garbage collection, whether by the Cebu City Government or by the city’s barangays, is in a mess. That is if we base that observation on the piles of garbage seen almost everywhere in the city. It is not only in Barangay Kamputhaw that the problem exists. That is why it is unfair for Mayor Tomas Osmeña to threaten to penalize the barangay for the pile of garbage seen in its jurisdiction when some other barangays are no better.

The Department of Public Services (DPS) virtually admitted that when its operations head, John Paul Gelasque, lamented the tendency of some city residents to dump their trash on the street long before the garbage collection schedule. “That’s not allowed, but there are just some stubborn people who can’t seem to follow the rules,” he told SunStar Cebu.

But garbage collection is a two-way street. Garbage collectors need to strictly adhere to their garbage collection schedules, too, or the trash thrown would pile up, Such has been the complaint of residents who, seeing the garbage accumulate in their yards because the garbage collectors failed to come, eventually put the trash on the streets.

But those are minor concerns because the biggest problem for the city now in terms of garbage collection is the failure, an act that could be deliberate, by the City Government to come up with a better solid waste disposal program. This can be seen in the continued obsession of the Osmeña administration with the Inayawan dump site. There is now an attempt, for example, to transform a part of the dumpsite as transfer station.

As pointed out by City Councilor Raymond Garcia, the proposal, if approved by the city council, could lead to a circumventing of the Court of Appeals order to close the dumpsite. We know what happened when the city used a lot in the South Road Properties as “transfer station.” Garbage accumulated there so that after it was closed some of the trash thrown there and the stench have remained.

Considering the magnitude of the problem caused by the closure of the Inayawan dumpsite, it is a wonder the Osmeña administration has not conceptualized a solid waste management program that befits the City.