Barangay residents buck proposed sanitary landfill site in Dumaguete

DUMAGUETE CITY — The proposed sanitary landfill site at a multi-million peso property in the outskirt village of Candau-ay in Dumaguete City is drawing opposition from residents who cited health, safety and environmental reasons.

During the regular session of the City Council last Wednesday, local legislators granted Mayor Felipe Antonio Remollo the authority to purchase a 3.5-hectare lot, worth P18.7 million, from spouses Francisco and Salvacion Divinagracia, as the site for the sanitary landfill in Candau-ay.

The move is in answer to repeated notices from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to shut down the city’s existing open dumpsite, also in the same barangay, as it is already outlawed.

It also aims to address the worsening problem of garbage collection and disposal in Dumaguete, with City Hall reporting an estimated 70 to 80 tons of waste generated daily.

Last Friday, residents of Barangay Camanjac, which is adjacent to Candau-ay, signed a three-page letter to Mayor Remollo, expressing their objection to the proposal. Most of the proposed landfill site is situated in Candau- ay, and part of it is in Camanjac, they said.

The signature campaign, backed by the Catholic Church in Camanjac, headed by Father Sulpicio Vincoy, pointed out certain parameters in the law that the residents feel must be complied with by the city government before undertaking the sanitary landfill project, said village resident Marilyn Kays, an active campaigner against the proposed landfill.

Camanjac residents have been apprehensive because the proposed site is just 100 meters away from the LCP Bloomingtown housing project and a few hundred meters from the river. The signature campaign aims to get as many signatures as possible and forwarded to the mayor.

Kays clarified that they are not against the establishment of a sanitary landfill as they understand the necessity to put up the facility to address the garbage problem of the city.

However, Kays said their concerns center on basic issues like health, as the proposed site is near a populated, residential area; safety, because the site is a lagnasan or a natural course of the nearby Ocoy River; and environmental hazards, with the site vulnerable to flooding.

Meanwhile, Loreto Revac, Provincial Environment Management Unit (PEMU) OIC of the Environmental Management BureauNegros Oriental, explained Friday afternoon that the establishment of a sanitary landfill will take a lengthy process.

Revac further assured the public that a social acceptability survey would be conducted to determine the sentiments of the residents in the barangays and the community.