DAVAO CITY – The City Environment and Natural Resources Office (CENRO) said on Thursday, Sept. 17, that the sanitary landfill in Barangay New Carmen, Tugbok here will only last until next year.
CENRO head Engr. Marivic Reyes said different interventions undertaken extended the lifespan of the seven-hectare landfill for a few more years but authorities said it has almost reached the maximum limit.
“The situation now at our sanitary landfill is that it’s nearly filled up. But with the efforts of our team to rehabilitate and compact it, we were able to extend its lifespan. For now, it can last until 2023,” Reyes said.
She said the city government would expand the landfill after it had acquired an adjacent nine-hectare property and preparations, including the design, are currently being worked out by the City Engineer’s Office.
Reyes said local authorities decided to expand the landfill instead of opening another landfill in a different location.
She said the government, particularly the Environmental Management Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, constantly conducts monitoring and collects water samples to ensure there is no leachate seeping from the landfill to nearby Banaag Creek, which is connected to the Pangi River.
She said only 33 out of 182 barangays here have material recovery facilities (MRFs) because other villages do not have vacant lots to host MRF for their recyclables.
Reyes added that there is ongoing preparation to form barangays into clusters and establish MRFs that can be shared among themselves.
She encouraged households to do composting at home to lessen the volume of wastes being dumped at the landfill.
The City Council has passed a resolution proposed by Councilor Temujin “Tek” Ocampo urging President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to allocate a counterpart fund of P3.482 billion to establish the waste-to-energy (WTE) project in this city. Ocampo believes the WTE would address the solid waste management woes here.
But environmental groups in Davao opposed the plan to establish the WTE here.