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The El Niño-induced drought and summer heat contributed to yet another fire at the Inayawan landfill in Cebu City yesterday.
Landfill officer-in-charge Eduardo Potot said the fire, the first to hit the dumpsite this year, was put out past 3 a.m.
A backhoe and bulldozer were used to dig out and spread the garbage to help douse the flames.
?It was a good thing that the firetrucks responded immediately and that we have the equipment ready for such incidents,? Potot said.
Sporadic fire outbreaks are caused by trapped methane gas building up in the garbage heap.
The heat has made the dumpsite vulnerable to fire even at night, he told CEBU DAILY NEWS.
?We cannot discount the possibility especially with the dumped plastic,? Potot said.
He said standby portable pumps weren't used because the water level was too low.
Newly paved service roads enabled the firetrucks to respond quickly to the fire.
In the hinterlands of Cebu City, the heat and dry weather is causing a water shortage manifested in lower spring water levels.
Sinsin barangay captain Ramon Ylaya Jr. said they have to source water from barangay Alimango in Toledo City about 20 kilometers away.
Ground water is sufficient only for their drinking needs, he said.
He said they have to use a water pump to extract water from the rivers in barangays Buot-Taup and Bonbon, an 80 degree slope from the river bed.
Ylaya said they have to use water hoses from the city agriculture office to reach sitios in higher areas.
About 200 households there had to deal with inadequate water supply along with their neighbors in barangay Sudlon 1.
Sudlon 1 Barangay captain Dante Tabucal told that some of their artesian wells are drying up while others can only supply water at noon.
Residents have to wait an hour to fill up their five-gallon containers with water from the wells.
Tabucal said some sell the residents water by offering drums in their multicabs.
He said their main source of water is located six kilometers from Sudlon proper near the Bonbon river.
He said their water pump needs a P20,000 spare part but their request has yet to be addressed by Cebu City Hall's Department of Public Services.
The Metro Cebu Water District (MCWD) said they intentionally limit water supply in order not to deplete the Buhisan dam whose water level dropped to 4.7 meters, down from its usual level of nine meters.
MCWD officer Edna Inocando said the critical level lies at 3.5 meters.
The dam supplies only five percent of the district?s capacity.
Inocando said that in past dry spells the Buhisan Dam was able to maintain above critical water levels.
She said they limit barangay Camputhaw to 12 hours of supply with the other 12 hours channeled to barangays Lahug and Capitol Site and the Nivel Hills area.
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources in Central Visayas (DENR-7) urged farmers anew not to resort to slash and burn farming or kaingin during the summer.
Teodorico Barral, DENR-7 division chief of forest development, said while most farmers don't practice kaingin, they burn leaves that can spread to brush fires, if left unchecke and cause water to easily evaporate.
Barral voiced alarm over reports that the MCWD dropped its supply to consumers in the Metro Cebu areas.
He said the water district told them that MCWD distributes 23,000 cubic meters of water from the Jaclupan Dam.
The dam used to produce 30,000 cubic meters of water.
He said the water district is limiting its supply from Buhisan Dam to 1,800 cubic meters a day.
Barral said this is a sharp drop from the 10,000 cubic meters of water produced from the dam.
