Dumaguete won’t collect unsegregated trash
DUMAGUETE CITY – Unsegregated garbage in rural barangays here will not be collected by the city’s garbage trucks starting on May 16. This in line with the campaign to enforce the segregation-at-source provision of an existing law.
Personnel from the Environmental and Natural Resources Office (ENRO) are going around the barangays especially during regular sessions to reiterate provisions of the Solid Waste Ecological Act of 2000 (Republic Act 9003) as well as provisions of the Local Government Code.
Both laws stress that it is the duty of the punong barangay and barangay officials to enforce environmental laws, particularly in this city, which is looking for a site for a sanitary landfill.
On Tuesday afternoon, ENRO officers Frannie Pabayos, Ophero Alabado and Norley Dorio told barangay officials in Bajumpandan during their regular session that segregation-at-source can mitigate the overflowing garbage situation in Barangay Candau-ay. They said the city in collaboration with other local government units from as far as Zamboanguita and Amlan were pooling their resources to put up a common landfill.
The group informed the barangay council only non-biodegradable garbage will be collected in rural barangays and enjoined them to provide for compost pits for biodegradables.
Residents in Habitat 1 to Habitat 4, Core Shelter, Caritas 1 and Caritas 2, I-Home and GK-2, all in Bajumpandan, are having problems disposing of biodegradable garbage.
Barangay chief Orlando Enquig had asked for a month to disseminate the information to presidents of nine housing sites and five puroks before the segregation at source can be implemented.
Because there is no space for compost pits, Enquig is concerned the two creeks in the barangay could become a dumping ground for garbage from the housing sites, if unsegregated garbage were uncollected.
Bajumpandan has a budget for the construction of a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) but the proposed site near the city slaughterhouse was turned down.
To stir up interest, the ENRO has launched the search for the cleanest and greenest barangay, including the cleanest coastal and inland bodies of water in the face of a lot of concerns, from coastal, urban forestry, illegal quarrying, among others. (PNA)