Hearing tomorrow on Cebu city ordinance to handle septic tank waste

ALL households and buildings  in Cebu City will be required to desludge their septic tanks every three to five years or when the tank is half full under a proposed ordinance set for public hearing tomorrow.

The measure aims to ensure that effluents  undergo proper treatment and don’t end up dumped indiscriminately.

The proposed ordinance provides for a a septage management program and sets fees and penalties.

It will apply to all esidential and commercial buildings, structures in the city as well as local or foreign sea vessels in  municipal waters of Cebu City.

A  Cebu City Septage Management Board will be created that will set a disposal fee and accreditation system for  service providers that desludge septic tanks and transport the effluents to the city government’s  waste water treatment plant in the North Reclamation Area.

If the ordinance is passed, one will need to secure a Septic Permit from the city before constructing a new septic tank.

This is a step in the right direction, said  Cindylyn Pepito of DENR- Environmental Management Bureau (EMB),  during the Water Challenge Forum last week, since there is no proper monitoring of where all the sludge from households are dumped.

“We don’t know where these sludge are thrown. Maybe these are just dumped in the river, we don’t know. It is a good thing that finally, Cebu City is coming up with this ordinance,” Pepito said during the forum.

Cebu City Councilor Nestor Archival said the city government signed an agreement with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to bring a machine from Yokohama, Japan that will restore operations of the city’s idle wastewater treatment facility by 2015.