LINGAYEN, Pangasinan ? Not one local government in Pangasinan has fully complied with the law on waste segregation, according to the provincial office of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

The law, which took effect in 2003, mandates waste segregation in every household, recycling and composting of wastes in the barangay (village) level and the collection of residuals (wastes that cannot be recycled or composted) by the municipal or city government to be dumped in a sanitary landfill.

?The problem is the construction of sanitary landfill because it?s expensive and the availability of land area [is also a problem],? said Leduina Co, provincial environment and natural resources officer.

?At least P150 million is needed for the construction of a sanitary landfill, and just looking at each town?s IRA [internal revenue allotment], it won?t be enough,? she said.

Co said all that her office could do was to remind the local governments about the law and encourage barangay officials to have material recovery facilities (MRFs), where recyclable materials are taken, and compost pits, where biodegradable wastes are converted into organic fertilizers.

With these facilities in place in every barangay, she said, every household would be encouraged to segregate their wastes and that residuals ending up in open dumps would be reduced.

Asked if her office has penalized any local government for not complying with the law, Co said none.

Under the law, local officials who fail to comply with and enforce rules and regulations of the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act (Republic Act No. 9003) may be charged administratively.

?Whenever we write the mayors, they would tell us what they have been doing. So, it?s not that they are totally doing nothing. We can understand their situation,? Co said.

Two years ago, a private company proposed to build a P250-million sanitary landfill in Bayambang town.

The project would have initially consisted of three cells (an excavated area where garbage would be compacted), a leachate (liquid that drains from a landfill) treatment plant, an MRF, a composting plant, an administration building, a motor pool, a scale house, a weigh bridge, a wash bay, a generator house and guardhouses.

But residents opposed it, saying they did not want their town to be turned into a dump of other towns of Pangasinan and Tarlac. Gabriel Cardinoza, Inquirer Northern Luzon