Newsbriefs

VEHICLE WEIGHT LIMITS

CONTRACTORS are complaining that the imposition of lower weight limits on vehicles using national and provincial roads will increase by up to 60 percent the cost of transporting heavy goods like sand and gravel.

Cebu Contractors Association president Peter Paul Dy Jr., also operations manager or PLD Construction, said they are looking at a cost increase of 50 percent to 60 percent once the policy will be fully implemented.

But Rey Calooy, president of Filipino Cebuano Business Club composed mostly of small and medium enterprises said the policy is being put in place to avoid destruction of major road networks that will affect everyone.

“There are many alternatives now like a technology called ’foamcrete,’ which is like fiber cement similar to Hardiflex and Shera products that don’t use much sand and gravel and is a great alternative to be used in construction.”

Engineer Mario Montejo of the Department of Public Works and Highways in Central Visayas yesterday said a department order issued last Feb. 1 setting a maximum vehicle weight limit of 13.5 tons would prevail in national roads. However, he said the province’s 10-ton limit will be applied in Cebu’s provincial roads./REPORTERS AILEEN GARCIA-YAP AND CANDEZE R. MONGAYA

SEPTIC WASTE PROBLEM

WITH the June 1 closure of Cebu City’s Inayawan sanitary landfill to septic waste starting June 1, the city government and private haulers would have to look for a new private septic dumpsite outside Cebu City, said Councilor Nida Cabrera.

Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama met with representatives of five private haulers including Cebu Septic Tank Sanction and Manual Services and JCM Septic Tank Services and instructed them to look for new septic dumpsites.

Cabrera said it would cost the city more to dump septic waste in a dumpsite far from the city.

Landfill head Randay Navarro said septic waste gets mixed with the wastewater that flows out of the landfill.

Tests conducted last month and released by the Environment Department show that landfill wastewater has extremely high pollutant content with chemical oxygen demand of 3,011, way higher than the accepted level of 200./CORRESPONDENT FATRICK R. TABADA

WATER CONNECTION RESTORED

WATER connection was restored to barangays Opao, Linao and Cawit last April 28 in Pilar town, Camotes Island, Cebu, said Pilar Mayor Jesus Fernandez who visited the office of the vice governor yesterday.

He said the presence of the special reaction unit from the Cebu Provincial Police Office ensured that water connection was restored.

Last month, the son of a certain Regino Capillanes reportedly cut off the water main after he was denied his share of income from water cooperative Gabi-Gabihan OLCP, Rural Waterworks and Sanitation Association Inc. since 2010. He also claimed tribal land rights over the site of the water source.

Fernandez said he negotiated with the armed group who guarded the water source, telling them, “The primary concern is restoring the water connection.
The problem is not between the LGU and Capillanes. It’s between the waterworks association and Capillanes. /CORRESPONDENT CARMEL LOISE MATUS