Trash just too much: Manila taps more trucks
In another sign of how devastating last week’s floods were, not only kitchen wastes, discarded packaging and other small bits of trash have piled up across Metro Manila, but also entire sets of damaged furniture, appliances and other bulky household items.
Citing this huge mess, Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim Tuesday ordered up to 20 additional dump trucks to be hired to collect garbage in the city streets.
Lim said he had directed the city’s public services department chief, retired Colonel Carlos Baltazar, to tap more haulers because “our own trucks weren’t able to collect for three days. But I cannot blame them because the trucks can’t really go.”
Baltazar earlier noted that the volume of garbage flushed out into the streets by the recent floods was “five times bigger compared to the already voluminous trash collected during Tropical Storm ‘Ondoy’ in 2009.”
“On a daily basis, at least 1,900 tons of garbage are collected during normal weather,” he said. ‘’During storm-related calamities, the volume increases five-fold and include water-damaged appliances and furniture.”
From Manila Bay alone, mainly along Roxas Boulevard, Lim said over 200 trucks had already been filled up with trash since the local government started the cleanup in the area two weeks ago following the storm surge triggered by Tropical Storm “Gener.”
“The situation is worse now since we are also collecting discarded beds, carpets, linoleum sheets, computers, sofas, and chairs every day,” the mayor noted.
Barangay officials had been instructed to make sure residents place their household trash in a common spot in their respective villages for easier pickup, he said.
In Malabon, the garbage problem has become the next tough challenge for local officials now that floodwaters have subsided in many parts of the city.
‘Malabon got QC trash’
“The garbage was swept by the floods into Malabon, which is a natural catch basin. These wastes are from upstream and elevated areas such as Bulacan province and Quezon City,” said Bong Padua of the Malabon Public Information Office.
The city government said at least 100 dump trucks would be needed to cart away the trash.
As of Tuesday, piles of garbage along Letre Road and other side streets in Malabon remained uncollected.
“I ask barangay leaders and residents to contribute to the bayanihan spirit as we tidy up the city,” Acting Mayor Antolin Oreta III said in a statement ordering a massive cleanup, which Padua said might take a week. With a report from Nathaniel R. Melican
