Incoming Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña’s declaration that the arrangement between the outgoing administration and private landfill operator Asia Energy Systems Corp. based in Consolacion town is illegal makes us wonder how he will deal with the mounting garbage disposal problem in the city especially in light of the onset of the rainy season.
His wife, Cebu City acting mayor Margot Osmeña was emphatic that no payment will be made to the landfill operator until a contract is signed.
According to her, the city owes the operator P15 million as of last April covering services rendered from January to April this year.
We hope the departments concerned can draw up a contract to cover payment of the services rendered at least until June 30 when a new administration comes in. The paramount concern of city residents is that their garbage is promptly picked up and disposed of, not seen piling up and drawing flies and all sorts of vermin near their homes and on the streets.
But so far the incoming mayor’s response to this pressing concern was to state that he will consider reopening part of the Inayawan landfill site in order to accommodate the city’s garbage. For all his faults, outgoing mayor Michael Rama at least implemented a longstanding order from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to close down the landfill which had already outlived its usefulness since several years ago.
Rama’s plans to build a recyclable waste facility and even a park at the landfill site, which may be the stuff of dreams and flights of fancy, at least looked promising but his proposition that the city continues paying landfill operators to accommodate the city’s garbage is both costly and impractical in the long term.
It’s not as if he doesn’t have any other plans; he already had a recyclable waste facility that could churn out material that can be sold to cement firms for a profit and there are already existing recyclable waste programs instituted by outgoing Councilor Nida Cabrera that can help a lot of indigent families earn a livelihood especially those living near the old landfill site.
But the outgoing mayor may have either yielded to his inability to convince city residents to practice waste segregation or he may have found paying transport services and landfill operators cheaper and easier when dealing with the city’s mounting waste disposal problem.
In contrast to Rama’s liberal fiscal policies, the tight-fisted Osmeña may or may not consider extending the services of Asia Energy Systems Corp. But what is the better and longer cost-effective solution other than further burying the Inayawan landfill site with more garbage?
Aside from the existing recycling waste facilities, the city government should require everyone from individual households to commercial companies to strictly observe waste segregation. And the city may be forced to set up another landfill site that is accessible to the city government’s garbage trucks.
There is no two ways about it and the DENR can help the city do it. Question is, would the incoming administration even consider that possibility?
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