MANILA, Philippines — The government is planning to put up a law-compliant sanitary landfill in Cavite to prevent the province’s garbage problem from affecting the ongoing Manila Bay rehabilitation project, according to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
DENR Secretary Roy Cimatu, chair of the Manila Bay Task Force, recently met with Cavite Gov. Jonvic Remulla and the local mayors to address issues on solid waste and water quality management in the province’s six rivers.
During the meeting, DENR-Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon) chief Nilo Tamoria identified these rivers as the Imus, Zapote, Rio Grande-Ylang-Ylang, Cañas, Labac and Maragondon.
“We cannot complete the rehabilitation of Manila Bay if we will not first solve the garbage problem in the province. There is a very big connection between the two,” Cimatu said during the meeting at the Oasis Hotel in Imus.
Cimatu said the only way to solve the problem of Manila Bay is to first address the garbage issues and water quality of Cavite’s water tributaries.
Remulla admitted that solid waste management is a major problem in Cavite, noting that 50 percent or 2,000 tons of solid waste per day ended up in rivers.
Of the 2,000 tons of garbage thrown into the rivers per day, 90 percent goes to Manila Bay.
Remulla said that of Cavite’s 23 cities and municipalities, 21 have no capacity to put up their own solid waste facility due to lack of space or land.
He said he had appealed to the DENR to help the province set up a sanitary landfill.
Cimatu said the recent heavy downpour caused garbage from Cavite rivers to drift to Manila Bay.
He said the evident increase in the rivers’ garbage volume could be attributed to the closure of all dumps in Cavite, in compliance with Republic Act 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000.