Bacolod City – More than 20 years after Republic Act (RA) 9003, or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000, was implemented, full compliance by the various local government units in Negros Occidental has yet to be attained.
Josephine Maguad, Provincial Environment Management Unit chief of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources Environmental Management Bureau, said that only 11 of the 32 LGUs in Negros Occidental have passed the geological assessment of areas identified for sanitary landfills.
In the absence of a sanitary landfill, some LGUs initially established residual containment areas where they can dispose residual wastes.
Other LGUs entered into a memorandum of agreement with neighboring LGUs that already have a containment area, Maguad said.
The submission of a 10-year solid waste management plan is a mandate given to LGUs by virtue of RA 9003 for the efficient management of solid wastes and the reuse, recycle and compost of wastes generated by cities and municipalities nationwide.
However, Maguad said all LGUs are trying their best to be compliant to RA 9003.
While other LGUs have identified areas for their sanitary landfill, they did not pass the geological and environmental assessments, she added.
RA 9003 prohibits open dump sites and instead requires sanitary landfills as the final disposal site for solid and residual wastes of a municipality or city or a cluster of municipalities or cities. (Gilbert Bayoran via The Visayan Daily Star (TVDS), photo courtesy of TVDS)
