SISON, Pangasinan – The establishment of a regional engineered sanitary landfill along the 88-kilometer Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expresway (TPLEX) would contribute in efforts to significantly reduce the huge hauling expenses being incurred by the Baguio City government in bringing its residual waste to the ESL in Capas, Tarlac which is more or less 100 million annually, former 5th district Rep. Mark Cojuangco said here recently.
He underscored the said regional sanitary landfill is envisioned to ease the garbage problem prevalent in the different cities and municipalities in the provinces of Tarlac, La Union, Ilocos Sur, Pangasinan and Benguet. However, the sanitary landfill plan will not come to fruition if the realignment process of TPLEX will not be approved by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).
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.” Engineer Armas concluded with a voice of an expert.
According to Cojuangco, a gubernatorial candidate of Pangasinan in 2016 elections, added that not only will the issue of garbage hauling be solved by option-1 road shift but also avoid future wreckage of several municipalities if the original plan continues. He wanted to divert the public works road construction plan to Option-1 as a number of farms, rivers, and populated areas, including his hometown will be affected by the project’s right-of-way acquisition.
Cojuangco said he understands the predicament of Baguio City having to spend more or less P100 million annually for the hauling of garbage outside the city, thus, putting up the ESL nearer to the Summer Capital would definitely help in reducing the hauling cost and would result to more savings which could be realigned for the implementation of more development proects and enhance the delivery of basic services to the people of the city.
By Herald Express News Team
