Garbage disposal

What is Cebu City’s solid waste management plan? I have to ask that because of the recurring nightmare of trash in Inayawan becoming a mountain and foul smell wafting to nearby residences and establishments when this happens. Because after the Court of Appeals (CA) ordered the Inayawan dumpsite closed, the city merely transferred the dumping to a private transfer station nearby, before these are picked up by paid haulers to a landfill in Consolacion town.

There seems to be an obsession by the city government with Inayawan, which in turn could be proof of bankruptcy of solid waste management ideas. Consider City Councilor Eugenio Gabuya’s proposed ordinance seeking to apportion one hectare of the closed Inayawan dumpsite as transfer station. But the city council’s committee on laws headed by Councilor Raymond Garcia said this could circumvent the CA’s order to close and then rehabilitate the old dumpsite.

Considering what is happening now at the private transfer station that the city is using, I would agree that Gabuya’s proposal would only result in the closed Inayawan facility becoming a dumpsite again. Unfortunately, with the recent shift in the city council’s majority from Team Rama to the Bando Osmeña-Pundok Kauswagan (BOPK), the Gabuya proposal may yet be realized--if the CA won’t shoot it down.

But why Inayawan again? As a friend correctly noted, “Wa na gyoy lain?” If the city government can’t even think of another transfer station site, how much more one for a new sanitary landfill? Which brings me back to my question, what is the city government’s solid waste management game plan?

Interestingly, a related issue has surfaced, the one involving the firm ARN Builders, which is transforming a three-hectare area in the mountain barangay of Binaliw into a material recovery facility. I don’t know if the project is part of a bigger solid waste management design by the city government but former city councilor Nida Cabrera, who now heads the City Environment and Natural Resources Office, admitted suggesting for ARN Builders to build a sanitary landfill instead.

The plan still has to be subjected to deeper scrutiny by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) considering its location, which Garganera said is near the Central Cebu Protected Landscape. Which only means that the ARN Builders project may not have been well thought of.

Cebu City is one of the premier cities in the country. As such, its leaders should also have come up with plans befitting its status. But in the matter of solid waste management, incompetence is written all over. There is not even an attempt to think things over. What is being done so far is knee-jerk and “reactionary” (merely reacting to stimulus). The result is a solid waste disposal setup that is limping forward.

Mayor Tomas Osmeña is already one year in this, his nth term, as mayor and yet he still has nothing to show on the matter of finding a longterm solution to the current solid waste disposal woes of the city. It would be unfortunate for the city’s residents if his administration continues to limp forward on this one. Then again, we get the government we deserve, right?