BAGUIO CITY – The City General Services Office disclosed that the local government was able to realize more or less P18 million in the budget that was previously earmarked for the hauling of the city’s residual waste after the transfer of its disposal site from the engineered sanitary landfill in Capas, Tarlac to the Urdaneta City, Pangasinan landfill.
City General Services Officer Eugene Buyucan reported to local legislators during the marathon budget deliberation that from January to November 30 this year, the local government was able to spend a total of P67.5 million for the hauling cost and tipping fees for the average 168 tons of residual waste that were hauled out of the city daily.
Of the said amount, he explained that over P37.8 million was spent for the hauling cost of the generated residual waste while more than P29.6 million was utilized to pay the tipping fees collected by the operator of the Urdaneta City sanitary landfill.
Earlier, the local government earmarked over P92 million for the hauling of the city’s generated residual waste from its existing temporary waste transfer station at the Baguio Dairy Farm to the Urdaneta City landfill.
Buyucan added that the local government is expected to spend a maximum of over P72 million for the hauling cost and tipping fees of the residual waste that will be hauled out of the city up to the end of the year thereby realizing a substantial savings from the allotted funds for the said purpose.
The local government is currently spending P745 per ton of garbage as hauling cost and an additional P500 per ton as tipping fee which is much lower compared to the previous P932 per ton haling cost and the proposed P650 per ton tipping fee when the city was still hauling its residual waste to the Capas, Tarlac sanitary landfill.
In 2010, the local government had been spending over P3,200 per ton hauling cost and tipping fee for its generated residual waste that was being hauled out of the city but the same was significantly reduced when Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan came back as the local chief executive and the same continued to date.
Buyucan admitted that the hauling out of the city’s residual waste is a temporary solution to the current garbage disposal concern of the local government considering that efforts are being done to look for a permanent site for the establishment of its proposed integrated solid waste disposal facility that will be a combination of traditional and state-of-the-art technologies in the disposal of garbage.
However, he pointed out that the local government is considering to temporary go back in disposing its residual waste to the Capas sanitary landfill considering that there are current maintenance problems on the units of equipment of the Urdaneta landfill to prevent the occurrence of the piling up of garbage in the city’s temporary waste transfer station, especially during the Yuletide season where the volume of garbage is expected to significantly increase because of the influx of foreign and domestic visitors to the city to spend a vacation.
Buyucan urged residents to continue intensifying the practice of segregation of waste at source to help in reducing the volume of residual waste being hauled out of the city and contribute in efforts to lessen the expenses for the said endeavour.
By Dexter A. See
