There are only two sanitary landfills in the entire Davao Region which is composed of 49 local government units, including five provinces, six cities and more than 30 municipalities.
Ideally, the ratio should be one landfill per LGU. This means that the region lacks 47 landfills.
The huge deficit, according to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources Environmental Management Bureau (DENR-EMB), has to be addressed.
At present, the two landfills in the region are located in Davao City and Island Garden City of Samal (IGaCoS).
EMB senior environmental management specialist Jay Kristoffer Bawi-in said a Waste Analysis and Characterization Study (WACS) indicates Davao City generates 900 tons per day, making the city the biggest waste generator in the Davao region.
“Based
on our study, every person in the city contributes half kilogram of garbage
waste per day,” Bawi-in said during
the Kapehan sa Dabaw media forum at SM City Davao.
He also said that out of the 182 barangays in the city, only 112 barangays are reached by the City Environment and Natural Resources Office (CENRO) service trucks.
He said that 50 percent of the generated garbage of the city is biodegradable or capable of being decomposed by bacteria or other living organisms.
“That is why, we should practice composting or garbage segregation, in order to reduce the burden of the garbage collectors of the city,” Bawi-in said.
He also encouraged the barangays to create a recovery facility wherein all the segregations will be made before it will be transported to the sanitary landfills.
Bawi-in
said that a landfill’s lifespan is usually targeted for rehabilitation of
eight to 10 years. Davao City’s landfill is being readied.
“The rehabilitation project is having a hard time, because the city has still to identify a new place for the sanitary landfill,” he said.
The environment specialist also said there is an ongoing bidding for the designing and building of a landfill site in Panabo City.
