JULIA Crowley Leilanie Adriano, Inquirer Northern Luzon
LAOAG CITY—Former US Peace Corps volunteer Julia Crowley loves to ride her bicycle under the canopy of trees in Ilocos Norte that has been her home for two and a half years.
But these rides often draw her to sights that frighten her: Depleted watersheds, and rivers, canals and waterways filled with garbage.
On June 10, Crowley, an urban planning graduate of the University of Illinois, urged the provincial board to address the problem. “Ilocos Norte has become an important place to me. I am living here and I have developed my deep concern [regarding] waste disposal,” she said.
Crowley served as a Peace Corps volunteer here from 2009 to 2011, teaching English at Sarrat National High School.
She returned to Ilocos Norte this year to record the way the towns of Sarrat, Solsona and Vintar dispose of their plastic waste. She said she expected to present her findings to Cornell University in New York where she is enrolled for a master’s study on the management of plastic waste.
During her Peace Corps years here, Crowley also helped Sarrat draft an ordinance regulating the use of plastic bags. With her help, the Sarrat government became a recipient of a $2,100 grant from the US government that allowed officials to hire local Binakol weavers to produce market bags made of cloth.
But the production of these bags has not solved the problem. Local residents still prefer to wrap meat and fish in plastic.
According to Sarrat Mayor Edito Balintona, the ban on plastic is not being strictly enforced until the town government finds an alternative for plastic, such as the native bag “bayong.”
Crowley also set her sights on the backyard burning of trash and illegal dumping in the province.
She said she had developed a phlegm infection because of her sensitivity to air contaminated by burning trash.
Most Ilocano homes burn their domestic waste, including Styrofoam containers, but do not realize how harmful this is to health and the environment, she said.
Ilocos Norte has an environment code, which should address the illegal dumping and burning of waste that caught Crowley’s attention.
Its enforcement, however, “takes political will,” said Board Member Mariano Marcos II, the code’s main proponent.
Board Member Vicentito Lazo said some Laoag residents still burn their garbage at home or dump their garbage in open sites and waterways.
Of Ilocos Norte’s 21 towns and two cities, only Laoag City and Nueva Era town operate sanitary landfills, according to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
Juan de los Reyes, the provincial environment and natural resources officer of Ilocos Norte, said only the towns of Vintar, Bacarra and Piddig were building sanitary landfills. Other towns have regulated open dumps.