BAGUIO CITY – The former Irisan dumpsite here will become an environment-friendly ecopark in a few months.
General Services Office official Eugene Buyucan said P17-millionhas been allocated for the project that will be completed in 175 calendar days.
Buyucan said the ecopark will have walls, paved road, cemented pathways, improved parking space, greenery on terraces, trees, and huts for shade.
Recyclables have been used as planting materials in available areas.
“From a mountain of mixed biodegradables, recyclables, and residual garbage, procedures are being undertaken to clean up and turn the area into a habitable area,” Buyucan said.
He said a leachate tank has been constructed for liquid filtrate – contaminants from the mixture of residuals and special wastes which threaten the water table in the area.
Buyucan said transformation through leveling, terracing, planting, and landscaping has been done in the dumpsite since the meeting and inspection conducted by Mayor Benjamin Magalong two years ago.
Agricultural lime has been sprayed to control odor from the buried garbage.
Market waste or biodegradables are still being processed at the Environmental Recycling System (ERS) in the area to turn them to soil conditioner or compost for fertilizer.
Usual recyclables in neighboring houses’ rooftops or lower parts are no longer seen, with changes to other lines of businesses.
Several government officials have visited the dumpsite, including Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Secretary Roy Cimatu and Undersecretary Benny Antiporda and Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Eduardo Ano. They pointed out areas that need improvement and tackled environmental factors such as water and air quality.
In August 2011, heavy rains from typhoon “Mina” released tons of garbage from the dumpsite which breached a side of the concrete wall and ended up in the neighboring municipality of Tuba, Benguet.
Five persons were killed and three houses were damaged.
A Writ of Kalikasan from the courts later deemed the dumpsite closed and transferred the staging area from Irisan to Lamtang, La Trinidad, Benguet.
At present, the city is using a government property at the Department of Agriculture (DA) Dairy Farm on Marcos Highway as sorting and staging area for non-biodegradable waste before these are transported to an engineered sanitary landfill some 70 kilometers away in Urdaneta City, Pangasinan.