BAGUIO CITY November 12 – Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan cited the put up of a centralized engineered sanitary landfill (ESL) in San Fabian will definitely contribute in efforts of numerous local governments that have difficulties in establishing their own solid waste disposal facilities in compliance to the provisions of Republic Act (RA) 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act, saying that it will greatly help in reducing the cost of garbage disposal from the city to the said landfill.
The local chief executive said that former Pangasinan 5th district Rep. Mark Cojuangco already informed him about the planned put up of the centralized landfill and the city government already expressed its support for its realization because it will greatly help the burden of all local governments that have difficulties in putting up their own solid waste disposal facilities within their jurisdiction because of inadequate land area and issues on social acceptability.
“We are also trying our best to have our own integrated solid waste disposal facility but whichever will come first, we will support the planned put up of the landfill in San Fabian which is just a few hours away from the city. We need to improve our relationship with our neighboring local governments so that we will be able to implement a holistic solution to our garbage problem,” Domogan stressed.
Barangay Gumot in San Fabian is the identified locality that will cater to the proposed regional sanitary landfill. Engineer Isier Armas, a geodetic engineer and a technical consultant of Cojuangco revealed that an analysis of the site’s terrain using state-of-the-art Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data provided by the University of the Philippines-Disaster Risk and Exposure Assessment for Mitigation (UP-DREAM) project funded by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) and Grants-In-Aid (GIA).
With an estimated area of forty (40) hectares and approximately sixty-five (65) meters in depth formed by a flat terrain between two elevated lands serve as a natural vessel for the proposed sanitary landfill. Marking its natural formation of mountain valleys means less earthwork for the embankments.
Domogan said the operation of the said regional sanitary landfill will contribute in further reducing the city government’s expenses in the hauling of garbage outside the city because the transportation cost could be lowered considering that the area is near the city and that there could be a lower tipping fee.
From the original P3,200 per ton spent by the previous administration of the city in the hauling of garbage to the Capas sanitary landfill in Tarlac, the city mayor underscored that because of persistent representations and negotiations, his administration was able to lower the cost to more than P1,400 per ton because of the significantly lowered tipping fee from P800 to P500 per ton.
