Delay on road repair hampers garbage collection in Bulacan towns

WAITING GAME Trash starts piling up in communities, like in Bulakan town.—CARMELA REYES-ESTROPE

CITY OF SAN JOSE DEL MONTE — Tons of garbage remain uncollected in seven towns and a city in Bulacan province as repairs on the damaged road leading to a private sanitary landfill here have been delayed.

Gov. Wilhelmino Sy-Alvarado called for an emergency meeting on Thursday to seek solutions to a looming garbage crisis.

Dump trucks of the Wacuman sanitary landfill at Barangay San Mateo in Norzagaray town had stopped hauling garbage on May 24 after a portion of Igay Road here collapsed due to landslides caused by incessant rains.

Gerry Cenal, Wacuman architect and administrator, said the road collapsed due to its substandard materials. The road is 3 kilometers from the Wacuman dump.

Elizabeth Apresto, head of the Bulacan provincial environment and natural resources office, said the road had not been repaired due to legal issues.

Some of the affected towns have identified landfill areas in the provinces of Pampanga, Tarlac and Rizal, and in Navotas City in Metro Manila as alternative dumps.

Emelita Lingat, head of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in Bulacan, said her office had been monitoring if local governments were already sending their garbage to sanitary landfills outside the province.

But Apresto said local governments in the towns of Bulakan, Baliwag, Paombong, Hagonoy, Doña Remedios Trinidad, San Miguel and Balagtas, and the City of Malolos had yet to remove their garbage that had piled up on the streets and in residential areas.

“Some of the affected local governments find it expensive to take their garbage outside the province and are just waiting for Wacuman landfill to operate again,” Apresto told the Inquirer.

Local governments wait for a sanitary landfill in Norzagaray town to resume its operation. —CARMELA REYES-ESTROPE

Closure

On April 22, Mayor Alfredo Germar of Norzagaray ordered the closure of Wacuman dump for operating without a business permit.

The landfill operator had a dispute with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas over property ownership but the firm had continued operating despite this.

Lormelyn Claudio, Environmental Management Bureau chief in Central Luzon, earlier directed the affected local governments to resolve the garbage problem within a week. —CARMELA REYES-ESTROPE