Rama to study, copy landfill use in S. Korea

CEBU, Philippines - Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama is set to fly to South Korea early today to personally observe how Korean officials make use of their abandoned landfills and possibly copy it in Inayawan Sanitary Landfill here.

Rama said officials of Incheon City headed by Mayor Yoo Jeong-bok invited him to visit their place — a metropolitan city and major seaport on the west coast of South Korea, near Seoul. The city then called Chemulpo, had a population of only 4,700, but is now home to more than two million people.

The mayor is being accompanied by his cousin Rene Mercado, chairman of the Cebu Metropolitan Water District MCWD. They are both scheduled to return to Cebu City tomorrow.

There have been several landfills in South Korea that experienced methane gas-related explosions generated from the decomposing garbage dumped in the sites.

In 2006, the South Korean city opened the world’s largest garbage-fuelled power plant that saved thousands of barrels of fuel a year. The 50-megawatt plant sits on a mammoth garbage dump in Incheon.

Mayor Rama is hoping that he could copy the idea on operating the garbage-fuelled power plant or how Korean officials manage their old landfills.

“Anugon kaayo na’ng atong old landfill sa Inayawan kun dili magamit kay 16 ka hektaryas gud na,” Rama said. The old sanitary landfill in Inayawan is just being used as a garbage transfer station.

Rama has directed the Department of Public Services to stop disposing garbage in the said landfill because it already exceeded the capacity.

Smaller garbage trucks collect wastes from the barangays and transport them to Inayawan Landfill before the garbage are transferred to bigger trucks, which will transport them to a private landfill in Consolacion  town. —/NSA (FREEMAN)