Published in City Express, San Fernando, Philippines, August 1998
Written by Mayor Mary Jane C. Ortego

Ten full days of visits to several solid waste management facilities has taught us so much about the various ways of solid waste management. But it also made us aware that the Philippines is twenty to thirty years behind in technology and public education.

We realized that we have to come up with regulations on solid waste in the City of San Fernando and to be knowledgeable about the regulations of DENR which were drawn up only last June 1998.

VISION - To be environmentally concerned not only for today but for the future generations

MISSION - To prepare a solid waste management plan that provides and demonstrates and certifies the availability of and access to sufficient solid waste management facility capacity to meet the needs of the community. (Patterned after that of Burgess & Nipple)

STRATEGIES:

• Provide informational and technical assistance on waste reduction through reuse and recycling, and composting opportunities.

• Reduction goal of 10% by 1999, 15% by 2000, and 20% by 2001, and ultimately a reduction goal of 35%.

• Improve Solid Waste Facility of the City, which is now situated at Barangay Mameltac. This is a 4.5-hectare land and with a possible expansion to 7 hectares by acquiring the adjacent 2.5-hectare, we will be able to provide the city with a sanitary landfill for the next fifteen years.

• Infectious wastes from hospitals can be disposed of through the use of the 300kg, incinerator plant of the Ilocos Training and Regional Medical Center.

• Scrap tire, monofills, and monocells should not be put in the landfill but recycled separately.

• Yard waste and food waste should be composted

SITING CRITERIA

Our present site has been recommended because there are few residents nearby, the ground is clayish and will minimize the contamination of the groundwater and the aquifer due to leachate, and it is far from geologic faults, airports, and natural and historic areas. The site is small compared to the 300 acres and 200 acres we saw in the United States, but it will meet the needs of the City for 15 years.

The City of San Fernando is privileged to be one of the six local government units chosen by the DENR to be part of the SWEEP Program, and as such, a pre-feasibility study has been mad with recommendations on various sites for the landfill. I would like to commend then Acting Mayor Bernardo Valero and the City Council, led by then Acting Vice Mayor Pableo C. Ortega, for immediately acting on the resolution adopting the present site as our site for the sanitary landfill, so that I could bring the resolution with me for our study tour and for the DENR to then start the Feasibility Study for the sanitary landfill which will be done as part of the grant of the World Bank funded by JICA. This feasibility study will be at no cost to the City and will be finished in January, after which the City will decide if we can be financially ready to undertake such a project and decide to what extent we want to be committed to the care of the environment.

In the meantime, we should start the public education programs—Operation Mia ken Mula and Operation Zero Waste Management of Solid Waste Enhancement Program—, sustain the programs launched, embark, on the various projects listed above, encourage the residents to come up with their suggestions, share with them the cost of garbage collection, encourage recycling, and invest in heavy equipment so we can at least cover our garbage and keep it sanitary, so that even with budgetary constraints, we can make that giant step in the care of the environment.

The study tour was most educational. It made me cry at the state of the environment and the care of the environment in the Philippines. But for a well developed country like the United States with no problems in malnutrition, health care, and other problems that beset a third world country, their commitment to solid waste management is so exemplary that they have been able to shift it from a duty of the state to an economic enterprise. We expect government to take care of our waste, in some parts of the United States, they pay for their waste as they throw them.

We were brought to landfills and were served our packed lunches under a tree in a landfill facility. We were served lunch as videos on garbage were shown. We were exposed to all kinds of solid waste management processes, so that we can now talk and look at solid waste clinically.

A little knowledge is dangerous. Our ten-day study tour had not made us experts compared to those who have been in the business for thirty years, but it has opened our eyes to the need of proper solid waste management. And for a newly created city like the City of San Fernando, we should be proactive and work for the prevention of the problems and not wait until the problem explodes in our hands like in the case of Metro Manila.

Mr. Agustin Dyquiangco, our Development and Planning Coordinator, and I would like to thank USAID’s United States-Asia Environmental Partnership and the American Consulting Engineers Council (ACEC) for this opportunity. It is the first one given to the Philippines, more specifically, the City of San Fernando, Metro Manila, Carmona, Naga City and Iloilo City with a representative from DENR, DILG and BOT.

• Thank you to the host corporations that gave us the insights on the different ways of solving problems of solid waste based in Washington, Philadelphia, Maryland, Delaware, Columbus Ohio, San Jose and San Francisco.

• And to you, our fellow residents of the City for understanding the need and the benefits that accrue to such study tours.