Now that the Sinulog is behind us, Cebu City Hall has to deal with a garbage problem that was aggravated by the Jan. 15 closure of the Inayawan landfill.
It was a plain dumpsite, no longer a sanitary landfill, which kept accepting mixed trash from all corners of the city, well beyond its capacity.
Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama finally complied with the environment department’s order to shut it down as an illegal depot of solid waste.
That was a difficult but necessary decision
What City Hall didn’t prepare clearly for were options to deal with the 500 tons of trash generated daily by the city.
What is the Solid Waste Management Board (SWMB) headed by Jade Ponce doing and where’s the roadmap to guide all hapless consumers?
For now the setup has villages following this rule: To each his own.
The city’s 80 barangays are left to truck their own wastes several kilometers north up a mountain to Pulo, Consolacion town, where a private contractor operates a landfill.
The daily parade of garbage trucks, many of them poorly maintained, to a more remote site outside of Cebu City is a weak example of time-and-motion efficiency.
And the trucks use the Banilad-Talamban road, which is already burdened by heavy traffic.
A gentleman’s agreement betwee Mayor Rama and Talisay Mayor Johnny de los Reyes, to transport part of the load to Talisay’s own landfill is stalled.
Mayor JVR has his own hands full dealing with critics who dominate the Talisay city council.
Into the near-vacuum comes private service providers like Paglaum Basureros. The outfit, a people’s organization, has the know-how in recovery and recyling of wastes. Their offer to several commercial establishments and schools to collect their garbage and deliver it to Consolacion for a P6,000 fee fills a real need. It’s hard to fault them for doing a service that should be provided by the local government.
However, its managing director, Francisco Paragas, sits on the SWMB, a fact that came under question as a conflict of interest. He had no choice but to resign.
The discovery just underscored the lack of careful thought about the next steps after the closure of the Inayawan landfill.
City Hall has to make up its mind.
Does it want to improve a basic public service by doing its job of collecting and disposing of garbage efficiently?
Or will it leave it to private enterprise to solve the garbage problem?
Ordinary residents want to know.