KORONADAL CITY (MindaNews / 15 Nov) – The city government has closed down its open garbage dumpsite in an outskirt village here in compliance with the provisions of the solid waste management law.
Marietta Dasilao, officer-in-charge of the city environment and natural resources office, said the move is in line with the mandatory closure order issued late last month by the Office of the Ombudsman.
She said they started implementing the dumpsite’s closure on Thursday last week.
The city was earlier given 15 days by the Environmental Ombudsman to implement the permanent closure of the dumpsite in Barangay Paraiso.
Local government units had been mandated to close down their open dumpsites as provided for in Republic Act 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000.
“Our dumpsite is now officially closed and garbage trucks are no longer allowed to enter the site,” she said in an interview over radio station dxKR.
Dasilao said they are currently constructing a fence at the garbage dumping area, which is located at the innermost portion of the site, to prevent possible encroachment.
But she said they continue to accept deliveries for “nabubulok” or organic wastes from the city’s public market and malls for compost processing.
These wastes directly go to the material recovery facility located near the entrance of the city dumpsite, she said.
With the dumpsite’s closure, Dasilao said they mandated the city’s 27 barangays to only collect residual wastes from households and establishments within their areas.
She said they have set collection schedules for every barangay for the accumulated residual wastes.
The collected wastes would be brought to the garbage compactor located at the back of the city hall complex, she said.
Once the site is full, Dasilao said the collected wastes would be delivered to the cluster sanitary landfill (SLF) in Barangay Colongulo in Surallah.
The SLF is managed by the municipal government of Surallah and caters to eight local government units in the province.
The city government had forged an agreement with the facility’s management for the delivery of residual wastes to the site.
Dasilao said the city has been delivering as much as 100 cubic meters of residual wastes to the SLF since March.
She said the local government pays P250 per cubic meter of delivered wastes and is billed on a monthly basis. (MindaNews)