City dumps garbage in watershed area; residents fall ill

They used to breathe fresh air from the trees in their watershed barangay.

But since May 13, at least 100 residents of sitio Catibes, barangay Guba in northern Cebu City have to endure the foul smell coming from 10 tons of biodegradable waste dumped by City Hall in their sitio.

Residents said the smell and the sticky liquid from the 10,000 kilos of garbage caused most of them to suffer from vomiting spells, headaches, stomachaches and even diarrhea.

They said they feared that the leachate, the sticky liquid from the garbage, might have penetrated their primary water source, the deep well and the artesian well, which were a few meters away from the place where the garbage was dumped.

The dumping area is in a 24-hectare lot in barangay Guba, owned by the city government.

Alma Manguray, 40, who lives just beside the dumping area, said she and her four children had experienced stomachaches and headaches and diarrhea since the garbage was thrown there.

“Pag-abot sa sagbot dili gyud mi katog pila ka gabii kay baho gyud kaayo. Wala mi gana mokaon,” she told Cebu Daily News.

A 1-year-old child at the area had been vomiting when the garbage arrived.

Sally Rota said her family including her husband and four children also suffered diarrhea and stomach pains because of the smell.

“Wala gyud mi gana mokaon pila ka adlaw, kay among tiyan mura ug muhiyak tungod sa kabaho,” Rota told CDN.

Barangay councilor Alexander Bontilao, who heads the barangay environmental committee, said there are around 100 families or more than 200 residents in sitio Catibes who had complained about the smell.

Most of these families had suffered from headaches and diarrhea at one time or another since the garbage was thrown there, he said.

Bontilao said the dumping of the garbage started on May 13, when three trucks of the Department of Public Service (DPS) had brought to the sitio biodegradable waste from the Inayawan landfill.

On May 15, Sunday, two more trucks were about to unload garbage at the area, but the residents prevented the DPS personnel from dumping the garbage there because of the unbearable smell.

“Dili naman gyud makaya so amo gyud gipugngan. Amo gi ingnan nga ipahunong na ilang gipanglabay,” Rota said.

Bontilao said that the area in sitio Catibes has around 200 to 300 hundred trees as part of a watershed area.

He said that barangay officials were not informed by City Hall of its plan to dump garbage in their place.

Bontilao feared that the garbage juices or leachate would mix with the water in the well, where the residents get their water for drinking and cooking.

He said that some of the sitio residents had also transferred to the training center of the barangay to sleep and avoid the unbearable smell of garbage.

Barangay officials said they were worried about the environmental consequences of the garbage dumped in the barangay considering that the area had been identified as part of the watershed.

They were also worried about the health risks posed by the garbage to their residents.

The residents, however, got some respite from the foul smell after they complained to Cebu City Councilor Nida Cabrera, chairperson of council’s environment committee, about the problem Wednesday last week.

The garbage was treated with chemicals so that the smell would be minimized and a tarpaulin was placed to cover it.

Still, Cabrera said she was not aware that the city had dumped garbage in the area until residents and barangay officials complained in her office last week.
The Guba residents and barangay officials were led by Bontilao, who heads barangay Guba’s environmental committee.

Cabrera said the city could be charged for violating environmental law since it didn’t have a permit from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to throw its garbage there.

She said although the biodegradable garbage had been processed for a week, still the smell and the juices of the garbage would still be there.

“Dili gyud unta na siya labayanan diha kay watershed area gyud na,” Cabrera told CDN.

She said the effect of the garbage is a health risk to the residents.

Consistent exposure to methane, a gas from garbage waste, can lead to poisoning, said Dr. Lee James Maratas of Cebu City Medical Center.

Common symptoms of methane gas poisoning would include headaches, vomiting, drowsiness, diarrhea and fainting, he said.

Maratas said the methane attacks the respiratory and the neurologic system of the person.

He said people exposed to methane should stay away from the area immediately.

Cebu City government had been processing biodegradable garbage into composts. The process would usually take months, plus the garbage needs to be dried up under the sun.

As a solution, Cabrera said they have started to cover “trapal” and apply chemicals to the garbage to minimize its smell.

Cabrera had to shell out P18,000 from her own pocket to finance the treatment.

Randy Navarro, Inayawan landfill head, admitted that they dumped garbage at the watershed area in Guba since the biodegradable waste area at the landfill had been full.

The landfill had no wastewater facility but it has been placed under a state of calamity to address this problem. (See separate story.)

He said they temporarily stopped disposing garbage at Guba due to the complaint of the residents.

Navarro said Guba had been identified as an alternative dumpsite during their meeting last month with Mayor Michael Rama.

When asked about the issue, Rama told CDN that he already instructed engineer Dionisio Gualiza and Cabrera to look into the matter.

Cdn tried to contact Gualiza, the DPS head, but the phone calls were unanswered.