Solidwaste board endorses agreement to City Council

CEBU, Philippines - While the construction of the proposed Waste-to-Energy Gasification Facility at the Inayawan Landfill will be at no cost to the Cebu City Government, the latter will be responsible for the hauling and transport of garbage as will be the arrangement in the proposed Integrated Waste Management Agreement (IWMA).

The proposed IWMA is awaiting the signature of Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama and to be effective, the concurrence of the Cebu City Council.

The Cebu City Solid Waste Management Board already endorsed the IWMA to the council and expects that it will be discussed this week.

Under the IWMA, the responsibility of the city government is to haul and collect 100 percent the city’s waste and deliver it to the Material Recovery Facility site. The city shall also provide all the local permits and clearances required by the project.

Only four hectares will be provided as the facility site while the rest will be turned over to the city government after the remediation, which means the clearing of all the estimated 1.8 million tons of residual waste.

All necessary data and documents pertaining to the Inayawan Landfill will be provided to the developer, the Greenergy Solutions Inc. (GSI), aside from the technical and engineering team that will coordinate with GSI during the initial stage of the project. A Special Purpose Corporation will be created.

The GSI will provide its own security and safety personnel at the site. The management of the project will be under the general supervision of GSI being the developer but there will be the possibility of alterations by the city especially if so required when there are issues on environment.

GSI will be responsible for the survey and investigation of the site, the design and engineering, financing, supply, construction, installation, completion, testing, commissioning, and operation and maintenance of the facility.

Under the general provisions on IWMA, specifically on financing, the city will incur no cost to the construction and maintenance of the project. The ownership of the 15.41-hectare landfill will remain with the city government.

GSI will be allowed the use of four hectares for a period of 25 years.

During the implementation, the GSI shall implement projects for community development as their corporate social responsibility, part of which is absorbing the over 400 scavengers so they will not lose their jobs when the landfill closes.

The revenue sharing and distribution is yet to be discussed. It will be covered by a separate agreement between the city government and GSI. The terms on revenue sharing and distribution shall take into consideration the capital poured by the developer that need to be recovered.

The project will cost about P4 billion. GSI targets to develop the capital and other costs in 15 years. — (FREEMAN)