MikeLigalig.com

Published in the Bohol Standard, April 22, 2007 Edition

NOW, lets talk garbage.

THE whole of Bohol, with a total population of 1.2 million people could dump an average of 880 tons of garbage daily.

Tagbilaran City, the lone highly urbanized center in Bohol contributes an estimated 92.5 tons of both biodegradable, non biodegradable and hazardous wastes from city hospitals.

Project that mess to Bohol’s dream of averting another Boracay garbage spill and the idea of environment protection here could easily go down the drain.

And strewn with it is Bohol’s bid as eco-cultural tourism capital in the region.

There is one last solution however, and the practice of indiscriminate dumping should be stopped, or Bohol turns into a huge garbage dump soon, environmentalists raise the alarm.

The solution, ecological waste managers press is for a reliable waste management that complies with the existing laws, they insist.

Republic Act 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000 provides for the institutional mechanism, comprehensive waste management through segregation of waste at source, recycling, composting and the operation of waste management facilities, says Chit Bigornia of the Philippine Ecological Governance Program-2 (EcoGov-2) funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Ecogov has been technically assisting local government units here in coming up with comprehensive waste management programs and sustaining them.

To highlight the milestones, such initiatives get to the exhibit on environmental stewardship in action at the atrium of the Bohol Quality Mall running from April 18-22.

Here, environmentalists get the chance to advance their call for more political muscle to support the frameworks of ecological solid waste management act. This as Bohol’s celebrates the earth week April 18-22 through a variety of activities ranging from exhibits to fora and coastal and sea clean-ups.

“If the people continue to use the seas as their garbage dump, sea turtles could mistake floating plastics as jellyfish and eating them may cause the turtles painful death,” states an unnamed marine biologist working with the Bohol Marine Triangle Project.

As Bohol also implements anti incineration of wastes in compliance with the clean air act, local government units play a key role in managing their waste programs to propel Bohol’s eco-cultural tourism dream, Ecogov authorities said.

As the election nears, the mulled Metro Tagbilaran common waste facility has become a hot issue with host town Alburquerque opposition camp capitalizing on anti common-landfill operation.

The most prominent issue raised has been the global “not in my backyard” stand.

But now faced with the ecological solid waste management law and the accumulation of fines for failure to operate the sanitary landfills, Bohol towns temporarily dip into segregation and recycling to recover usable garbage to buffer the bulk of garbage.

In Jagna, for example, while the town has started operating its facility, it has also banked on the recycling of wastes, and a Funchum fun slip ons may be a trendy summer wear to watch, says Catalino Berro Jr, the town’s information officer.

So far in Bohol, only Carmen has been able to operate its sanitary landfill in accordance to law.

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