GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/25 June) – The provincial government of South Cotabato is pushing for the completion within the next three to four months of the province’s P7.7-million cluster sanitary landfill in Surallah town.
Roldan Eusoya, project engineer of the Surallah Municipal Engineer’s Office, said the ongoing construction of the facility already exceeded the halfway mark and they are targeting its full completion before the last quarter of the year.
“We’re expecting it to become operational by September or October,” he said.
Eusoya said they earlier completed the ground works and the installation of power lines for the administrative building of the facility, which is being constructed in a six-hectare property in Barangay Colongulo in Surallah.
He said they are now working on the facility’s embankment, drainage canal, water system, clay liner and the installation of reinforced concrete pipe, flush box and catch basin.
The provincial government of South Cotabato initially allocated some P5 million for the construction of the sanitary landfill, which will mainly benefit at least six municipalities in the province.
The Surallah cluster sanitary landfill will serve the host municipality of Surallah and the neighboring towns of Norala, Sto. Nino, Banga, T’boli and Lake Sebu.
Ramon Ponce de Leon, Provincial Environment Management Office chief, said the local government had tied up with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded Philippine Environmental Governance Project for the development of a clustering strategy for the establishment of sanitary landfills in the province.
Aside from Surallah, he said the provincial government is also working for the construction of cluster sanitary landfills in Polomolok town and in Koronadal City.
The local government pushed for the construction of the sanitary landfill in compliance with the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2001 or Republic Act 9003.
RA 9003, which was signed into law by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in 2001, provided for the closure of all open dumpsites in favor of sanitary landfills and ordered the segregation of recyclable and non-recyclable wastes. (Allen V. Estabillo/MindaNews)
