Inayawan still gets 60% of Cebu City waste

A dawn fire that broke out in the  Inayawan Sanitary Landfill  yesterday revived  City Hall attention on the risk of fire breakouts in the methane-rich dumpsite.

Engr. Randy Navarro, head of the city’s landfill operations, said  some scavengers may have set off the fires to recover rubber tires buried under the piles of garbage.

Navarro said fire breakouts can’t be avoided because a large volume of garbage is still being dumped there.

Even with Mayor Michael Rama’s December 2011 order to close the landfill, it  still receives about 60 percent of the city’s garbage.

The fire department recieved the fire alarm at 4:34 a.m. yesterday.   The fire was put out at 8:05 a.m.

Cebu City Fire Marshal Aderson Comar said the fire was not  immediately  controlled since the landfill  area was big.

“We needed to contain the fire right away because it might spread to the nearby houses.” said Comar in Cebuano.

The nearest shantiesare located at the White Road  about 50 meters away.

Residents in the area were not affected by the smoke because the fire occurred at the tip of the landfill near the sea, said Inayawan barangay tanod Gary Dotolio.

Nine fire trucks from Cebu City responded to the alarm, with some fire fighters crossing the sea on a banca.

Mayor Rama ordered water containers placed in the  compound as standby supply in case of fire.

Rama also called for a meeting with the Solid Waste Management Board and his Gubat sa Basura group to ask for updates on city’s garbage segregation program and the landfill closure.

Garbage Build Up

Navarro said that only 40 percent of the city’s daily garbage collection of about 300 tons are transported by truck to the Asian Energy Systems Corp facility in Consolacion town.

About P24 million was set aside in the 2012 annual budget to pay tipping fees for the  Consolacion facility at P700 per ton of garbage dumped.

To date, only P4 million remains of the outlay, said Engr. Dionisio Gualiza, head of the Department of Public Services (DPS).

Lack of a Barangay Environment Officer (BEO) makes it difficult to monitor the segregation of garbage brought into the landfill , said Navarro.

The city has 500 BEOs paid a a monthly honorarium of P3, 000.  Some members are tapped for   barangay composting projects and   Materials Recovery Facilities supposed to operate in the barangays.

Navarro said a waste-to-energy program is the best solution.

A private firm, Greenergy Solutions Inc., has a pending offer convert the  waste to biomass at no cost to the city government. /Doris C. Bongcac, Chief of Reporters with a report from Rhea Ruth V. Rosell