By Leonardo V. Micua
URDANETA CITY - The sanitary landfill being built by the city government in Barangay Catablan here is set to be finally completed by the second week of February, next year.
This, after the project suffered a snag in its construction due to the inclement weather during the early periods of the year and the onslaught of typhoon “Juan†in the month of October
City Administrator Ronald San Juan admitted that they recently talked to the contractor who said that the opening of the project, costing P220 million, might be moved to the second week of February, which means it can be inaugurated on Valentine’s Day.
He noted that this was the second postponement of the completion of the project. It was first targeted for completion in October and the second by the end of December.
Confident that the contractor can beat the new deadline, Mayor Amadeo Perez VI and his father, former Mayor Amadeo Perez Jr., now chairman of the Manila Economic Cooperation Office (MECO) in Taiwan, are now coordinating with Malacanang to have President Benigno S. Aquino III inaugurate the project.
The sanitary landfill, a landmark project of the Urdaneta City government, was started during the administration of the elder Perez, which was continued by his son, Mayor Amadeo Perez IV.
Before he bowed out of office last year, former Mayor Perez said the sanitary landfill adopted the most sophisticated technology available to prevent seepage of leachate into the soil from where it will mix with ground water.
This, he added, disputed the earlier fear that the sanitary landfill will pollute the water of the Sinocalan River.
The project is being constructed on a 12-hectare flat land bought by the city government from beneficiaries of the Agrarian Reform Program, sliced off from the property of the late Speaker Eugenio Perez Sr. in Barangay Catablan.
Financed from the P220-million loan by the city from the Land Bank of the Philippines, the project is in compliance with Republic Act No. 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act which mandates local government units to put up their own sanitary landfill to replace their existing open dumpsites that had been banned since 2009.
The project will replace the adjacent existing six-hectare open dumpsite of the city which is now being slowly closed and set to be planted with vegetables and fruit-bearing trees, and being reserved as an extension of the sanitary landfill after 10 years.
San Juan said that the city government will allow other LGUs to dump their garbage to the sanitary landfill for a fee. The revenues to be generated will help the city amortize its loan with LBP, but he clarified that this will all depend on the decision of the city council.
He said tagged as priorities to use the sanitary landfill are the towns of Pozorrubio and Sta. Barbara although the town of Mapandan and the cities of Baguio and Dagupan also expressed their interest to use the project for their garbage.
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