Fernando: Metro Manila dumpsites have 1 year left before being filled up

January 4, 2003, Manila Times
Joshua Dancel, Reporter and Anthony Vargas, Correspondent

The dumps used by the different localities of Metro Manila has about one year left before reaching full capacity, Metropolitan Manila Development Authority Chairman Bayani Fernando said yesterday.

Fernando, who was attending a meeting at Malacañang, told the Manila Times that the metropolis badly needs a new landfill for its trash before the situation gets worst. The MMDA is currently trying to convince Quezon provincial officials to allow a landfill for Metro Manila to be built between Candelaria and Tiaong.

The MMDA chairman made the statement after being asked about the reported expansion of Marikina City’s dump. He is a former mayor of the said city.

Fernando said the two-hectare Doña Petra dump in Bgy. Concepcion Uno is for the exclusive use of Marikina City. The other local governments of Metro Manila must continue using their present dumps, he added. He warned, though, that a new landfill for the metropolis must be found because the present dumping grounds are already nearing their full capacity. The metropolis produces an average of 6,000 tons of rubbish daily.

He said it was not true that the MMDA was planning to transform the lot at Doña Petra as a temporary landfill for Metro Manila to ease the impending garbage crisis.

Jose Zaide, the Doña Petra site supervisor, said the Marikina City government recently acquired an additional three-hectares of land to expand the dump. He could not say, however, how much the property was worth and if the expanded property is large enough to be used as a temporary dumping ground for Metro Manila’s trash. The expansion site would be ready for use on February.

Zaide, according to Marikina officials, is a former supervisor of the closed San Mateo landfill in Rizal.

Marikina Mayor Marides Fernando, the MMDA chairman’s wife, said the city government is doing everything it can to ensure the safety of residents near the city’s dump. The measures included soil flattening to avoid erosion and deodorization to minimize the foul odor emanating from the city’s dump, the mayor said.

The MMDA chairman said he would sit down with Quezon officials anew to show them how the sanitary landfill in their province would be put up and operated. Fernando was visibly irked when a rowdy crowd met him during a recent public hearing in the province.

“I would like to urge the residents and officials of Quezon Province to open their minds to the concept we are offering because this would definitely benefit them as well,” he said. The decision to build the landfill in Quezon must be made within the month, Fernando added.

Once Quezon officials approve the MMDA’s plan, the solid waste management facility would be developed into an industrial zone, Fernando said.

“Railways and highways would be built and other facilities related to the waste management would also be put up. In short, we plan to make the area an advanced industrial zone,” Fernando said.

Under Fernando’s plan MMDA would need at least 2,000 hectares of land about 100 to 150 kilometers away from Metro Manila. Special trains of the Philippine National Railways will bring the trash to the site.