Waste disposal woes loom in southern city

GENERAL SANTOS CITY: Around 100-120 tons of waste per month are generated by households and business establishments covering the 26 barangay (villages) of General Santos City, according to Ferdinand Pareja, head of the Solid Waste Management Office here.

He said his office had submitted all the five pertinent documents for budget appropriations for the city government to allocate funds for construction of another waste facility within the 63.3-hectare sanitary landfill in Barangay Sinawal.

Pareja added that the existing dump is already full and “we need to construct a new waste facility” to cope with an increasing volume of waste being generated by the 26 villages.

He said they also have been facing problems with a growing volume of waste generated by isolation centers and temporary treatment and monitoring facilities for Covid-19 patients.

Pareja added that they collect an average of 1.5 tons of medical waste from two collection trips every week from the centers and the facilities.

Masks, face shields, personal protective equipment and swab test kits are being disposed of separately at the sanitary landfill, he said.

Pareja also said they have proposed construction of the city’s own healthcare waste treatment plant to ensure proper disposal of waste from the isolation centers and treatment and monitoring facilities and even some local hospitals.

“The medical waste should be processed properly to prevent possible contamination and health risks to our communities,” he added.

In 2018, the local government allotted an initial P20 million for the establishment of the treatment plant but the project was later shelved.

Pareja said the local government is looking at an undisclosed loan to facilitate the funding of the landfill’s expansion and the establishment of the health care waste treatment facility.

He cited Section 3 of Republic Act (RA) 9003 or “Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000” that provides, “No open dumps shall be established and operated, nor any practice or disposal of solid waste by any person, including local government units.”

“Our role here is to properly comply with the provision of the law in establishing and rehabilitating our own sanitary landfill,” Pareja said.

He also said his office continues to boost its information drive on RA 9003 through webinars that focus on national household management of hazardous waste and waste analysis and study guidelines for waste conversion into energy, among other topics.

Pareja reminded the public to go back to the basics of simple waste management.

He enjoined people to always reduce, reuse and recycle materials.