Cabrera: Kalunasan not ideal site for landfill

CEBU, Philippines - The Cebu City Government is no longer considering much the proposal to construct a second sanitary landfill in Barangay Kalunasan.

Councilor Nida Cabrera, chairperson of the committee on environment, said the proposal is no longer attractive considering the opposition of the more than 60,000 residents of the barangay.

She also found other legitimate factors that make the proposal not feasible at present.

Among the legitimate factors that Cabrera cited is the fact that the barangay is surrounded with bodies of water which might be affected. Kalunasan is also one of the water sources of the city.

According to Cabrera, Kalunasan’s topographical location is not really ideal site for landfill because this might greatly affect those in the lowlands.

Cabrera said that they are now studying the feasibility of dumping garbage in the town of Consolacion which recently opens a state of the art Sanitary Landfill operated by a private company.

The 6.9-hectare landfill in Barangay Pulog, Consolacion, which was built and operated by Asian Energysystems Corporation-The Renewable Energy Company, is seen to solve the garbage problem of Metro Cebu for a significant period of time.

The owner assured that the facility is safe and compliant with the necessary regulations and guidelines stipulated in Section 59 of the Republic Act 9003 otherwise known the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000.

Cabrera and her team is set to visit the area today for an ocular inspection.

She said that they will also meet with the town officials headed by Mayor Teresa Alegado to ask if it is possible for the city to dump the average 500 tons of garbage a day.

Initially, Asian Energysystems Corporation has offered the landfill for a fee of P700 per ton which would cost the city some P350,000 daily.

Dumping in Conso-lacion will only be temporary until the city is able to find a new site for the landfill.

The city is eyeing Barangay Binaliw in the north and a place somewhere in Talisay City as possible sites for the new landfill.

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources recently gave the city until March to build a new landfill since the one in Inayawan is already full. – (FREEMAN)