Home 
TO ADDRESS Cebu?s solid waste management situation, Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia yesterday encouraged local government units to look into new technologies that could be utilized.
The governor, who met with Mayors Jonas Cortes of Mandue City and Avelino Gungob of Consolacion town yesterday, said most modern countries no longer use landfills.
?The provincial government is looking at the most efficient solution to address garbage problems. I?ve been to many first world countries and I have seen that they do not have landfills. They have other means of disposing their garbage,? she said.
She said landfills are Cebu?s best option only until new garbage management technologies could be made available locally.
Cortes told the governor that the Umapad open dumpsite in Mandaue had been closed. He was just waiting for the City Council to pass a supplemental appropriation that would allow the city government to establish a landfill in Umapad.
Gungob said he also wanted a landfill in his town. But he first wanted to know ?the province?s direction? in handling solid waste.
Garcia earlier entered into a memorandum of agreement with mayors of Carmen, Liloan, Catmon, Tabuelan, Cordova, Consolacion, Compostela, Borbon, Tuburan, and Sogod, and the cities of Mandaue, Lapu-Lapu and Danao for the establishment and use of a common landfill in Carmen.
Garcia said a 20-hectare lot had been set aside for the purpose.
However, the governor said she called for another meeting among the mayors on July 22 to discuss details of the technology she wanted to be used in the Carmen landfill.
Also on July 22, the governor said she would enter into a Memorandum of Agreement with mayors and barangay captains for the adoption of a solid waste management systems in their localities.
Garcia said she wanted a system that would encourage garbage recycling and segregation at home to reduce the volume of dumped garbage.
Using a P100-million financial assistance package from the national government, the province was giving out ?seed money? to the 1,093 barangays of Cebu that could be used to buy recyclable materials from households.
Recyclables are to be deposited in materials recovery facilities that would be established in each barangay.
Each town and city would also be given a seed capital of P15,000 per barangay that could be used to buy recyclables that barangays buy from households.
The provincial government may also buy recyclables from the towns and cities. These could then be sold to scrap buyers.
Garcia said she would like to encourage local government units in the province to open accounts with the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) where the Capitol could credit financial assistance to their solid waste management programs as well as their share of local taxes.
?We have to implement a very efficient system that will reduce work at the Provincial Treasurer?s Office,? said Garcia.
She said it was unwise for treasury personnel to spend so much time preparing checks for the local governments.
