Southern Leyte environment alliance signs accord

Saint Bernard, Southern Leyte , Philippines  - The full implementation of the Philippine Ecological Solid Waste Management (ESWM) Act of 2000, (RA 9003), has been a continuous challenge to all cities, specifically in putting up resource recovery programs and sanitary landfills nationwide.

Lower-income municipalities are confronted with the greater challenge - implementing the provisions of the law utilizing the limited resources that they have, thus, clustering was considered.

The Southern Leyte municipalities of Anahawan, San Juan and Saint Bernard in the Pacific area have taken the challenge and organized the cluster. DENR-8 CENRO-San Juan, EMB-8 and the GTZ-AHT SWM4LGUs Project were major role players together with the said towns who accepted the challenge and established the Southern Leyte Pacific Municipalities Environmental Alliance (SoLePaMEA).

 Prior to the MOA signing, steps in Alliance Building included: LGUs analyzed their strengths and weaknesses; series of planning-workshops in crafting the LGUs’ medium-term work plans and identification of gaps and options; Joint Sangguniang Bayan session on SWM/SLF which discussed joint support, waste diversion-disposal and financing. The final milestone prior to the MOA signing was held Oct. 14-15 wherein the results revealed how each municipality shared similar perceptions with regards to the sharing of finances and workload.

San Juan targets to focus on establishing a model materials recovery facility. Anahawan envisions to establish a pilot recycling and composting, while Saint Bernard proposes to specialize on segregation and social marketing for public participation.