City Hall forms team to study waste-to-energy project at SRP

CEBU, Philippines – The Cebu City government has started forming a technical working group that will study the feasibility of an unincorporated joint venture project between Filinvest Development Corp. (FDC) and the city for the construction, operation and ownership of a facility that will use wastes from Inayawan Landfill to produce energy.

The TWG should be able to produce initial findings on the project's viability to be measured basically through its advantages and disadvantages on the environment, the city's financial capacity and other areas of concern.

The city will then convene the Joint Venture Selection Committee if the TWG finds the project doable and passes the criteria of a joint venture project created under the JVSC ordinance.

City Administrator Jose Marie Poblete said they have invited two officials from the Environmental Management Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (EMB-DENR 7) to be part of the group.

They also requested the service of Amancio Dongcoy and Marcelino Tabuco, both from the Solid Waste Management Division of the EMB-7.

Poblete said that they need the help of EMB as this is their area of expertise.

The power plant that FDC plans to put up at the Inayawan sanitary landfill will use an initial 500 tons of waste per day to generate 20 megawatts of power.

About 90 percent of the generated energy will be used by the desalination plant to convert seawater into fresh water through the reverse osmosis process to address water needs of the locators at the SRP.

FDC director Andrew Gotianun Jr. said the modern waste management technology that they will implement is being used widely in Germany, China and other countries.

The project will cost an estimated 30 million US dollars or between P1.3 billion to P1.4 billion. Filinvest and the city government will finance 35 percent while the remaining 65 percent shall be sourced from external borrowings.

Under the proposal, the term of the project is 25 years, renewable for another 20 years. After the project term, it will be transferred to the city government.

The proposal of Filinvest is unsolicited although there had been various plans for the landfill, which has been operating past its lifetime.

The Inayawan landfill was designed and built by Japanese experts to last for 15 years or until 2003 only.

The city is spending close to P70 million a year for solid waste management, including the operation of garbage trucks and the maintenance of the landfill. (FREEMAN)