11 Cebu mayors to build landfills, split expenses

Eleven town mayors of Cebu Province have banded together as a cluster to put up a common sanitary landfill, and agreed to share the total expenses for the undertaking.

The cluster was composed of the cities of Mandaue, Danao, and Lapu-Lapu, and the towns of Liloan, Catmon, Consolacion, Carmen, Compostela, Sogod, Tabogon, and Borbon.

The mayors said that to minimize the cost of construction they are going to have one dumpsite for waste from their respective places.

Provincial Board member Victor Maambong said the estimated cost in the construction of a sanitary landfill is P400 million, including land clearing and excavation cells, liner, collection and treatment, surface water runoff collection and disposal, methane collection and flaring, access road and monitoring wells.

Maambong said the Department of Environment and Natural Resources already approved two areas, in Danao City and Sogod town, for the mayors to choose as the site of their sanitary landfill.

The Danao location is at least 20 big hectares with available space for future expansion while engineers have yet to check and measure the Sogod site.

Republic Act 9003, or the solid waste management law, bans burning of trash and open dumpsites, and mandates the establishment of sanitary landfills, recycling centers in every barangay, and the formulation of a 10-year waste management plan.

The law took effect last year ordering the conversion of all controlled dumpsites into sanitary landfills on or before January 2006. Local governments that failed to comply will face legal action.