DAVAO CITY – Mayor Sebastian Duterte is hoping that the national government approves the P3-billion funding for a waste-to-energy (WTE) project here.

Duterte said the city government may consider other ways to manage the solid waste problem if the project does not get the support of the national government.

In his program over Davao City Disaster Radio (DCDR 87.5), Duterte said funding the project is just “a matter of prioritization” now after he met officials of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in Manila and discussed this city’s intention to build a WTE facility.

He said that the city government remains hopeful that the national government would support it.

“Huwat lang ta total kung mahatag na mahatag man na (Let’s just wait. If it’s meant for us, it will be given to us). If not, we can always look for other ways to manage the solid waste problem,” he said.

Duterte thanked the City Council for passing a resolution Tuesday, Aug. 23, urging President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to provide a P3.486-billion counterpart fund for the project.

In a resolution authored by Davao City Councilor Tek Ocampo, it said the country should seize the opportunities offered by the Japanese government to avail of the technical and financial assistance to develop sustainable ways of managing solid wastes.

Ocampo, chairperson of the city council Committee on the Environment, said the Japanese government expressed intention in 2018 to donate 5.013 billion yen, or equivalent to P2.052 billion, to partially fund the project.

He added that the current sanitary landfill in Barangay New Carmen has almost reached full capacity due to the increase in the volume of wastes, necessitating the “adoption and application of existing technologies that address solid waste management.”

The city generates around 600 to 700 tons of wastes daily, according to the City Environment and Natural Resources Office.

However, environmental groups criticized the passage of the resolution and maintained that the WTE will not address the solid waste problem here.

In a statement Wednesday, Aug. 24, Bro. Karl Gaspar, chairman of the Paglaum Ecology Network (PEN), said the group disagrees with Ocampo’s assertion that the project would not only reduce the volume of wastes but also provide energy.

The group called for the cancellation of WTE incineration projects and rejection of WTE proposals from foreign and local investors, removal of WTE incineration from the 10-year solid waste management plan, and investment in genuine zero waste solutions.

“Like many other institutions and groups who have issued their own statement on this issue, we believe that the WTE incinerator project is not the correct solution to an urgent problem we are facing now and which could only worsen in the years to come,” he said.

He added that WTE has been proven to cause health and environmental problems based on experiences in a number of countries, contributes to climate change as it uses fossil-based plastics as feedstock for electricity production, involves huge investments which then help increase of foreign debt and threatens the job security of waste workers, and violates existing environmental laws.