BAGUIO CITY – Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan ordered the City General Services Office to fastrack the preparation for the terms of reference for the public bidding of hauling services for the city’s residual waste to the Urdaneta sanitary landfill.
The local chief admitted the local government is experiencing some problems in the timely hauling of the city’s residual waste in its temporary transfer station situated within a portion of the Baguio Dairy Farm because the existing hauler cannot provide adequate hauling trucks for the immediate transport of the generated residual waste in compliance with the prescribed no touchdown policy.
Initially, Domogan revealed that he got in touch with the management of the Urdaneta sanitary landfill to extend the needed assistance to the local government by providing their available hauling trucks to help the contracted hauler haul out the waste brought to the temporary transfer station by the city’s garbage trucks to avoid the piling up of garbage in the said place.
“Let us not wait for our garbage to pile up in the designated pick up points and our temporary transfer station that is why we made adjustments by seeking the assistance of those interested to help the local government address its garbage disposal problem at the moment,” Domogan stressed.
The city mayor claimed there are interested individuals who already signified their intention to participate in the bidding of the hauling of the city’s residual waste with the assurance they could probably even lower the ceiling of the hauling cost to help save substantial amounts for the local government.
According to him, the city’s garbage trucks are able to collect the generated waste in the identified pick up points in the city’s 128 barangays but when these are brought to the temporary staging area to be transferred to the hauler’s trucks, the hauler has no available trucks that often result to the piling up of garbage in the staging area.
Domogan also ordered the concerned offices of the local government to fastrack the completion of the P11.7 million chute project within the temporary staging area so that the city’s garbage trucks can directly transfer their cargo to the hauler’s trucks in compliance with the city’s no touchdown policy as required by the Cordillera office of the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB-CAR).
While the residual waste is allowed to stay in the transfer station within 24 hours, he asserted the local government is sensitive to the plight of the residents living near the transfer station who are always inconvenienced by the foul odor emanating from the garbage left in the area.
He emphasized he also got in touch with the contracted hauler to fulfil the provisions of the hauling contract and prevent the piling up of garbage in the transfer station as this could result to serious problems on the environment and the health of the people living in the vicinity of the station which the local government does not want to happen, thus, the city is doing its best to ensure that no garbage will be left in the station at the end of the day.
By Dexter A. See
