LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – The municipal government was able to save more or less P2 million monthly previously earmarked for the hauling of the town’s residual waste outside the municipality after the operation of cell No. 3 of the Alno controlled dump facility.
Mayor Romeo K. Salda said that after putting in place the operation of the Alno dumpsite’s Cell No. 3, the local government will now focus on the expansion of the facility with the projected start of the development of Cell No. 4 which will be operational within the next several years.
Last year, the municipal government opted to temporarily haul out its residual waste because of the programmed expansion of Cell No. 3 of its Alno controlled dump facility.
Further, the local government also purchased additional garbage trucks that were used to haul out the town’s residual waste to the Urdaneta City sanitary landfill wherein it was the trucks of the municipality that hauled out the said generated residual waste.
Salda claimed that because of the resumption of operation of the expanded cell of the dump facility, the local government was able to save some P2 million monthly that helped lessen its expanses for garbage disposal.
The town generates more or less 30 tons of garbage daily with bulk of the generated waste coming from the operation of the La Trinidad vegetable trading post.
The local chief executive claimed that the early development of Cell No. 4 will ensure that once that Cell No. 3 will be filled up, there will be available space which could be used in the Alno dumpsite for the continuous disposal of the town’s generated waste considering the expected increase in the volume of garbage from the people due to the increase in the population of the fast growing locality.
Mayor Salda expressed his support to whatever initiatives of other local governments to put up appropriate waste disposal facilities within their areas of jurisdiction which will be used by the Baguio-La Trinidad-Itogon-Sablan-Tuba-Tublay (BLISTT) localities for their waste disposal sites considering the absence of sufficient land area for such purpose in La Trinidad.
He disclosed that since the institutionalization of the Bantay Basura in the town’s 16 barangays, there was a significant reduction in the volume of garbage that are collected by the garbage collectors who are assigned to work round the clock.
The Alno controlled dump facility was constructed by the local government with funding support from the Presidential Management Staff (PMS) and other local and international funding institutions that made the locality compliant to the provisions of Republic Act (RA) 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000.
Salda also welcomed proposals for the adoption of the appropriate technology that has been proven and is environmentally friendly to be used for its solid waste disposal program to help in prolonging the life of the town’s Alno controlled dump facility for the benefit of the present and future batch of leaders of the municipality for them not to have headaches on how to address the expected solid waste disposal problem in the future.
La Trinidad is being eyed to become the third city in the Cordillera if the required land area for it to qualify as a city will be waived.
By HENT