BAGUIO CITY – The City Council approved on first reading a proposed ordinance institutionalizing the first week of June each year as City Environment Week and appropriating funds and for other purposes, it may serve.
The ordinance authored by Councilor Elaine D. Sembrano stated the purpose of the local legislative measure is to come up with a regular and local government-sponsored and sanctioned activity to promote and inform the public of the city’s various policies, programs, and projects on health and sanitation, waste management and environmental protection, including private sector initiatives on the said matter.
The ordinance mandated the creation of a committee composed of the City Mayor as chairperson and City General Services Officer as action officer with its members, the City Environment and Parks Management Officer, City Social Welfare and Development Officer, Chairperson of the Committee of Health and Sanitation of the City Council, President of the Association of Barangay Councils (ABCs), representative from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, representative from the Department of Science and Technology, representative from the Department of Trade and Industry, representative from the academe, representative from duly accredited non-government organizations with programs related to environment protection and representative from the Association of Recyclers.
The committee shall formulate the program of activities for the weeklong City Environment Week, the requirements and guidelines for public participation, criteria for the Search for the Most Innovative Indigenous or Locally Developed Waste Management practice or technology among others; come up with an inventory of environment protection policies, programs and projects of the local government, including social and economic activities derived therefrom; link with the private sector, academe, entrepreneurs, environmental advocates and other stakeholders with interests in health and sanitation, waste management, environmental protection for the furtherance of the measure and recommend to the City Council or to the City Ecological Solid Waste Management Board, City Water Governance Council, the Clean Air Monitoring Committee, the City Mining Regulatory Board, the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council and similar bodies created by the city, measures for the enhancement of policies, programs, and projects as gathered from the public.
The ordinance warrants the allocation of P100,000 from the city’s general fund or from the allocation of the ecological solid waste management for the smooth implementation of the measure and for its expediency, the said amount shall be included in the annual budgetary allocation of the City General Services office and it shall be adjusted accordingly to support the activities that will be lined up for the purpose.
The activities that can conducted during the week-long event include public forum or symposium on the government’s policies, programs, and projects on health and sanitation, waste management and environmental protection, including private sector initiatives on the said matters; exposition of recycled products, technologies and best practices on waste management, environmental protection, conservation and regeneration; search for the most innovative indigenous or locally developed waste management practice or technology model recycler, and the most environmentally-friendly barangay. By Dexter A. See