Barangays urged to build MRFs

DUMAGUETE CITY, Philippines — Every barangay in the city should avail itself of P300,000 fund for building its own materials recovery facility to help the city government in solving the garbage problem.

Environment and Natural Resource Office head Rey Awayan said the process of eliminating the garbage from the Dumaguete dump includes the implementation of the city’s Reuse, Recycle Reduce program at the Central MRF, which was built at a cost of P1.5 million.

An example of this program was Barangay Junob that has already set up its barangay solid waste management for garbage collection and segregation, which resulted in additional income by selling its recyclable waste.

Other barangays that have already requested for the offered fund for the building of their own MRFs are Bajumpandan, Daro, Bantayan, Piapi, Pulantubig, Mangnao, Batinguel, Calindagan, Cadawinonan, Bagacay and Cantil-e.

Mayor Manuel Sagarbarria meanwhile planned to develop, within six months from now, a part of the city dump into an ecological park, complete with benches and lights as a site for people to relax.

The mayor had instructed the City Engineer’s Office to push the garbage upwards to give space for the Eco Park at the foot of the dumpsite.

The Sagarbarria project would include the construction of an Organic Fertilizer Factory that would process organic materials from the dump, with the fertilizer products to be distributed to farmer’s associations in the city. — Syril G. Repe (FREEMAN)