By Ercel Maandig
Cagayan de Oro-In the regular session of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan of Misamis Oriental on Tuesday afternoon here, Environment Committee Chairman Board Member Gerardo Sabal reported that Governor Peter Unabia is very optimistic that the province will adopt a renewable energy program this year.
Sabal said that the provincial government is in a consistent talk with a Chinese investor for a Waste to Energy project in the province patterned the success of China that is now adopting a “No Segregation Policy”; instead, all wastes are converted into renewable energy to produce electricity.
“This is the vital solution to the national government’s failure of the main component of the Solid Waste Management Act(RA 9003) which is the Household Segregation,” Sabal said.
Noting also that he doesn’t want the big issue in 2018 that will happen again wherein the province was intruded by a foreign waste dumped in an industrial estate located at Tagoloan and Villanueva towns in Misamis Oriental. As we recall, around 7 metric tons of waste from Korea was able to enter the Philippine territory and invaded the province just to dump waste in the Phividec Industrial estate. Added that Majority of the waste are plastics.
This June,we celebrated Environment Month with the theme: “Solutions to plastic pollution under the campaign #BeatPlasticPollution.
To beat Plastic pollution,Sabal reiterated that renewable energy by making waste into energy is the answer.
Sabal said that coming from a Domestic waste is the biggest volume of garbage we generate and segregation at source is supposedly the solution but cooperation and discipline from the community is the biggest hindrance why the national government is not successful in the implementation of the Solid Waste Management Act of 2000.
As of a 2021 report from the World Bank Organization,our country alone generates 2.7 Million tons of garbage annually and 20% of which winds up in the ocean.
TRASH TRAP PROJECT
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Region 10 two months ago is piloted two villages here for a trash trap project in Puntod and Lapasan,two villages of which are the exit point of garbage from a huge drainage installed at Bitan-ag creek, a drainage system wherein trashes from the 8 villages will flow from to the mouth of were the two trash trap installed and that will exit to Macajalar Bay.
Lapasan village chief Julito Ogsimer saw the success of the project upon monitoring the seaside area of the village now clean and pristine and has no plastics floating unlike before that minimal of residents don’t go into swimming because of garbage presence but at of the present situation,beach goers increases along the seaside adjacent to the coastal diversion road where you can see also the Macabalan port area which is the main port of the Philippine Ports Authority of the city.
NO TO PLASTIC ORDINANCE OF CITY COUNCIL
On January 1, 2019, the 19th council of this city started the implementation of the No to Plastic ordinance wherein stores and vendors are not allowed to use plastics as wrappers for their purchased goods. Two days after the implementation,the city listed around 89 violators.
Today, it seems the ordinance has been forgotten by the establishments of this city after Board Member Sabal saw the restriction has not been observed already by some stores and vendors especially in the villages wherein plastic canisters and cellophane are now the regular mode of wrapping specially in sari-sari stores and eateries.
On his part,City Councilor Roger Abaday who is the committee on Environment in the 20th council said that he want to review the ordinance and will ask the Association of Barangay Captain(ABC) chaired by Ex-officio City Councilor Yan Lam Lim to look into it because it was already the prerogative of the village chiefs to monitor strictly and implement again the the said ordinance.
Abaday will also study the Waste to Energy program of Misamis Oriental once it is already implemented and realized. ###
