Public assailed the blatant negligence of Tagbilaran city hall in the proper management of the growing garbage spilling on the road fronting the unsanitary open dumpsite in Dampas, this city.
Regularly passing haulers and other vehicles have to maneuver away from the blocking wastes that literally covered the road, in the process opening a “new†road passing over a stretch of the main water pipeline of the Bohol Water Utilities, Inc. (BWUI). The pipeline is meters away from the original road.
The haulers that run over the pipeline can cause cracks and eventual leaks. There is imminent fear of water contamination because the garbage fluids can drain into pipe cracks, according to settlers in the area.
Vice Mayor Jose Antonio Veloso, Councilor Leonides Borja who is the Sangguniang Panlungsod health committee chairman, Councilor Beben Inting and Dampas captain Fredison Ingles inspected the area last Wednesday.
Veloso immediately had a BWUI unit rushed to the site, although the affected water line was already buried in mud and stinking rotten wastes.
The condition had gone through months until it was exposed and serialized over top-rated DYRD program Pulso, hosted by crusading journalists Batchoy Alba and Ven Arigo, generating calls and text messages from concerned city residents against the government inaction.
The failing solid waste disposal management exposes the people to serious health hazard.
The city’s small, rusty bulldozer used to push the garbage into the dumpsite hole, bogged down. Now the garbage has mounted past a basketball goal by the road.
Engr. Edmund Jimenez of the city’s solid waste management unit said in Pulso they rented a private bulldozer to clear the road from garbage.
The Chronicle saw on the contrary that even the rented equipment has long ceased to function for about two months now because it also bogged down, and got stuck on the muddy access to the dump hole.
Veloso also quickly contacted the owner of the private bulldozer to find a replacement. Only a small city payloader was seen scraping the garbage mount during the dumpsite visit.
Kag. Inting asked for an inventory of the city’s heavy equipment as he recalled of some P90 million for economic enterprises intended to include heavy equipment.
Concerned city residents expressed frustration over the failure of city hall to rent another bulldozer when its officials could even get cash advances by several millions of pesos.
“Frustrated†Dampas kagawad Aida Barafon revealed they had long raised during a mayor’s morning radio program the worsening dumpsite condition but no concrete action has been taken.
Jimenez was invited to the barangay assembly and council session but failed to attend, the lady barangay councilor said.
Barafon said they even took video footages of the dumpsite condition but still there was no positive response from concerned city officials, including the city health officer.
EMPTY TALK
In his usual style, the mayor declared in the City Charter Day celebration in July last year that his administration would embark on major infrastructure projects in the next 12 months.
The mayor then also said the city would act on the garbage problem because it was, at that time, already an urgent matter to be addressed since the Department of Environment and Natural Resources would aggressively pursue the closure of the dumpsite.
CITIZEN SUITS
Based on Republic Act 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000, any citizen may file an appropriate civil, criminal or administrative action in a proper court or body against any public officer who willfully or grossly neglects the performance of an act specifically enjoined as a duty by the law.
source: Bohol Chronicle
Linkback:
https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=20721.0
Topic: Mismanaged Garbage Problem in Tagbilaran (Read 1117 times)