Inayawan landfill stays open — Mayor Rama

Forget Consolacion town as an alternate site for Cebu City’s garbage.

City Hall had to back off plans to use a private landfill in Pulog, Consolacion, after a dry run last Wednesday failed.

City residents will have to continue using the Inayawan Sanitary Landfill even though it is operating beyond capacity.

Bad roads and lack of a contract were among the reasons the city’s garbage diversion plans “failed.”

The Consolacion landfill facility isn’t ready to accommodate the city’s garbage as well.

Cebu City Councilor Nida Cabrera said that Mayor Michael Rama couldn’t sign the cessation order for the Inayawan landfill until a new facility could be identified.

“We saw many problems during the dry run. The facility in Pulog, Consolacion, isn’t ready. We ourselves aren’t ready,,” she told Cebu Daily News.

Officials of the Asian Energy Systems Corp. refused to accommodate the city’s garbage brought into their facility yesterday morning because of the lack of a memorandum of agreement with the Cebu city government for use of the site.

Cabrera said Mayor Rama refused to sign an agreement with the landfill management unless he would be certain that the diversion plan would work.

Asian Energy charges P700 per ton of garbage brought into their facility in Consolacion.

The Cebu city government conducted a dry run on Wednesday to check the possible arrangement.

Garbage trucks from the Department of Public Services (DPS) and some barangay trucks were sent to Consolacion town using the Banilad–Talamban–Pit-os road on its way to Cabangahan and Pulog in Consolacion town.

The results of the dry run and inspection of the facility in Consolacion prompted Mayor Rama and members of the city’s Solid Waste Management Board to call off the closure of the Inayawan landfill and the garbage diversion plan.

Cabrera said the dry run exposed road problems in the route to the Consolacion facility.

The soil foundation of the road was loose. Trucks had a hard time maneuvering to avoid falling off the slope along with the garbage, she told CDN.

Cabrera said the Pit-os and Cabangahan roads had to be widened and improved because these roads could only accommodate one truck at a time. The road condition in the landfill also needs improvement.

While these needs are being addressed, Cabrera said the waste management board would look into other solutions such as tapping a garbage facility in Naga City in south Cebu to handle waste from Cebu City’s southern barangays.

Another option is to tap a Lapu-Lapu City-based company offering gasification technology to convert waste to energy.

Meanwhile, lawyer Gloria Estenzo Ramos of the Philippine Earth Justice Center said local leaders should strictly enforce environment and waste disposal rules.

Republic Act 9003 or the Solid Waste Management Act of 2000 requires the segregation of wastes, proper management of toxic wastes and for all local government units to provide technical assistance to barangays. With Reporter Candeze R. Mongaya