Obando sanitary landfill to open next year

MANILA, Philippines - Officials involved in the construction of an engineered sanitary landfill in Obando, Bulacan yesterday said the facility will be operational by the second quarter of 2012.

Architect Rafael Tecson, executive vice president and general manager of Ecoshield Development Corp., said the Obando facility which the company is building, will be totally different from the sanitary landfill in Navotas.

“Phase 1 of the project, which will have funding of P350 million to P480 million, will consist of 5,000 square meters. The project will adopt a compartmentalized setup wherein waste will be accommodated by blocks or cells,” Tecson told stakeholders in a meeting at Edsa Shangri-La.

Under the first phase, some 200 jobs will reportedly be generated.

Tecson said the landfill has a multi-barrier system, embankments and meticulously engineered high-density plastic layerings that would prevent the seepage of contaminated water to outlying communities.

He said the landfill being put up in Barangay Salambao will be able to accommodate 1,000 metric tons of garbage per day.

“We have secured the necessary permits from the barangay level up to the national level as represented by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR),” he said.

Tecson said the landfill will be able to serve all the coastal towns of Bulacan and Metro Manila.

This developed as the Bulacan provincial government and the DENR signed an agreement to clean up the heavily polluted Marilao-Meycauayan-Obando river system.

Bulacan Gov. Wilhelmino Sy Alvarado and officials of the Environmental Management Bureau led the formal signing.

The signatories also included Obando Mayor Orencio Gabriel and local officials of Marilao and Meycauayan towns.

The Marilao-Meycauayan-Obando river system has been listed by the New York-based Blacksmith Institute as among the dirtiest rivers in the world.

The river system is now heavily silted and polluted because of indiscriminate dumping of industrial and household wastes.

To restore it, the river system needs to be dredged, and the garbage and contaminated materials will be collected and processed at the landfill.

Meanwhile, Alvarado and the municipal officials welcomed the filing of a petition before the Supreme Court for the issuance of a writ of kalikasan on the landfill project.

Alvarado said the move “will settle once and for all the issues raised against the proposed sanitary landfill of Ecoshield by sectors with questionable motives.”

Alvarado lamented that certain quarters are inciting public opposition to the landfill because of alleged “selfish political interests and commercial greed.”

Earlier, various protesters, including citizens’ groups, environmental organizations and a fisherfolk alliance, asked DENR Secretary Ramon Paje to stop the construction of the 44-hectare Obando landfill, arguing that it is near the Obando River and Manila Bay.

The protesters alleged that the Obando landfill project is illegal and poses health hazards to Obando River and the residents.

They also alleged that the landfill would also worsen the decades-old flooding problem in Obando, contribute to the continued deterioration of Manila Bay, and destroy the livelihood of thousands of local folk.

“The unprecedented flood that engulfed Obando is explicit proof of how environmentally critical the entire town is and how wrong it is to construct a landfill in such a location that is obviously at risk,” EcoWaste Coalition president Roy Alvarez said.