Encore on the need for a landfill

The phrase “cause and effect” is not just a mere writing tool nor a simple philosophical formulation. Because these words mean the relationship between two things as when one thing makes something else happen. The phrase is real.

Two nights ago, I came upon twin reports from CDN Digital that applied “cause and effect”. The report featured firstly about twenty garbage trucks converging at the former Inayawan landfill which could not as yet unload their cargo because it seemed that there was no more space to do that. It appeared that this place at Inayawan is now used as a transfer station to mean that the waste brought by garbage trucks would eventually be hauled somewhere else. Secondly, the report mentioned about the refusal of a privately-operated landfill facility located in Barangay Binaliw to allow Cebu City government-owned garbage trucks to dump waste there. It was reported that the contract for the city to use the landfill has not been renewed.

I do not really wish to sound like a proverbial broken record to be writing again and again on a topic that seems unimportant to the leaders of our city. But believe me, there is a need for the city government to establish its own landfill facility and I am not about to shirk my responsibility to remind our leadership of the urgency of this need.

The article i wrote here in this column only on March 7 was entitled “Again, the need for a landfill.” In that issue, I had to pretend to be an economist (because I am not) in pointing out that the city was wasting hundreds of million pesos to pay a private contractor to haul our garbage to a distant place. By the way, may I now suggest that authorities investigate a report that the hauler/contractor is a city government official and look at the legal aspect of conflict of interest? Also in that March 7 write-up, I pretended to be an environmentalist (again because I am not) in pointing out how unsanitary, how unhealthy and how environmentally disastrous that Cebu City has become the dumping ground of the garbage generated by and produced in neighboring localities.

Here is a part of what I wrote in that March 7 column: “In fine, we need a sanitary landfill. Cebu City has to have one. There are all good reasons for our leaders to adopt this project. That is my reason for writing again about it in this column. To be truthful, I have written few articles in the past, on the necessity for the city to build its own landfill but I must admit that until this point of time, no one among our distinguished leaders is willing to take up the cudgels. If I sound repetitive, it is because there is no more beneficial project than having a sanitary landfill.”

In a still previous column, I mentioned of a vision of the late former City Mayor Ronald Duterte. He pointed to a valley somewhere in the middle of the barangays of Babag, Kalunasan, Busay and Lahug to be an ideal place to construct a modern landfill compliant of all environmental laws and regulations. This area is more equally accessible to the barangays of the north and south congressional districts. Even the mountain villages will find this place a viable answer to their garbage disposal problems. There are indeed favorable economic, environmental, geographical, health and sanitation issues associated with such accessibility.

The CDN Digital report last Tuesday more than my repetitive articles graphically highlights this urgency for the city to establish its own landfill. Here is hoping our leaders move their -- pardon the word -- asses.