TUBA, Benguet – The municipal government is currently preparing for the establishment of its own centralized waste staging area that will be able to comply with existing standards of the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) on waste disposal sites so as not to compromise the state of the environment in the area where it will be established.
Mayor Ignacio Rivera admitted that the staging areas of its towns residual waste is actually scattered in Camp 6, Badioan in Poblacion and Nangalisan that is why it is best for the local government to put up a centralized waste staging area along Marcos Highway that will conform with the prescribed environmental rules and regulations being strictly implemented by the environment department.
We need to make sure that our own waste staging area is compliant to environmental preservation and protection standards so that we can have the moral ascendancy to air our views on the compliance of other neighboring local governments to the standards of their waste transfer stations. We have to take the necessary steps to make sure that our own staging area is compliant to environmental laws, rules and regulations,” Mayor Rivera stressed.
The local chief executive claimed that another issue being hurled against the existing waste staging area of the local government is the fact that the said sites are open which is detrimental to the state of the environment in the said areas, thus, the need for the concerned offices of the local government to fastrack the put up of the centralized waste transfer station along one of the major exit and entry points for easier hauling of the town’s residual waste to the available sanitary landfills in Urdaneta City, Pangasinan or Capas, Tarlac.
According to him, the local government must have to put in place the appropriate solid waste disposal programs and projects at the earliest possible time while the current situation is still manageable so that adjustments could be easily be implemented when necessary to prevent the occurrence of garbage crisis in the municipality.
Rivera pointed out it will be unfair for municipal officials to be openly criticizing city and municipal officials of neighboring localities for their failure to effectively and efficiently address their garbage disposal problems when the municipality is not able to do its own part in addressing similar concerns that is why Tuba should take the lead in complying with the standards of the solid waste disposal laws, rules and regulations for its officials to walk the talk.
He urged residents in the tow’s 13 barangays to improve their practice of segregation of waste at source to lessen the volume of waste being dumped in the available waste staging areas and for them to maximize the utilization of their generated biodegradable waste, especially in the production of agricultural crops either for domestic or commercial purposes.
Rivera asserted that addressing the town’s garbage disposal problem is not only the obligation of the local government but it is also the duly of the residents to do their part in significantly reducing the volume of waste generated by the households so that there will be lesser residual waste that will be hauled out of the municipality.
Tuba is a first-class town that relies on the operation of Philex Mining Corporation, the country’s largest gold and copper producer, as its source of income through the years although its has also potentials in agriculture and ecotourism as its added source of revenue. By HENT
