A WATERING machine that will help separate water and septic tank sludge will be installed in the Inayawan landfill next year.
Ryo Hiraga, senior technical adviser for EX Research Institute Ltd., said the machine was donated by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
“Installation will start on the first quarter of 2016 . It will be a nearly two-year operation,” Hiraga told reporters yesterday.
Hiraga and Nao Takeuchi, consultant for EX Research Institute Ltd., took part in a forum on technical, environmental and social dimensions of waste management in developing cities at the University of the Philippines (UP) Cebu yesterday.
They are in the country to conduct research on solid waste management.
Cebu City has been chosen as the beneficiary for the watering machine because the area has no facility for septage treatment.
“It could desludge the septage which could contaminate river and water. With the installation of the water machine, we put some chemical that will separate the clean water and the sludge,” he said.
Hiraga said the clean water can be discharged to the river while the remaining sludge can be used for composting.
Takeuchi said there must be a proper desludge of septic tanks and should be treated.
“It can affect our ground (drinking) water and can also directly discharge to the . There are 31 Filipinos who die every day due to diarrhea,” she said during the forum.
Takeuchi said 89 percent in Cebu City have septic tanks but only 76 percent are accessible for vacuum truck. She recommends to desludge the septic tanks periodically or every five years.