EDITORIAL - Learn from our mistakes

The Binaliw Landfill in Barangay Binaliw, Cebu City, which has been closed since the trash slide that killed 36 people and injured 18 others last January, is now back in operation, at least partially.

Even after strong objections from some Cebu City councilors, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources-Environmental Management Bureau Region VII (DENR EMB-7) defended its decision to partially lift the cease and desist order against the landfill.

In justifying his actions, EMB-7 Regional Director Atty. John Edward Ang said they came up with the decision to balance environmental safeguards with practical necessity.

“Cebu has an urgent need for a functional waste disposal facility to handle the city’s waste, and our decision followed a careful evaluation of the company’s compliance measures,” Ang said.

There is no denying that what happened there last January was a major tragedy. For the three dozen dead, their loved ones waited in anguish for days for any sign of life as rescue workers dug through tons of trash. Many families that just celebrated the new year were now mourning instead.

But we understand how the EMB-7 arrived at their decision. While we don’t want what happened last January to happen again, we also need to acknowledge the hard truth that we need somewhere to throw our trash.

Because the fact is that the city didn’t stop producing trash just because we stopped dumping at the Binaliw landfill.

But this also goes without saying that all precautions must be undertaken to make sure that what happened last January will never happen again.

We must learn our lessons. With how the city is expanding and how much trash people are producing --and ignoring ways to reduce their garbage output-- we predict that Binaliw will not be the last landfill we will establish to dump our trash.