Crackdown on haulers dumping in drainages
Cebu City officials say they will be forced to file charges against six private sewage waste haulers who continue to dump their wastes at sea and in the city’s drainage systems.
Councilor Edu Rama said this after a meeting with representatives of the haulers last Thursday.
Councilor Rama and Councilor Nida Cabrera, who co-chair the solid waste management board, received complaints about the dumping from barangay Pasil officials.
The board is eyeing a private sewage treatment plant (STP) at the South Road Properties (SRP) to service the wastes dumped by the haulers after the city government closed down the Inayawan landfill site.
“If ila gani na ipadayon (if they continue to do this) we will be forced to file a case,” Rama told Cebu Daily News.
Rama said the haulers have nowhere to dump their wastes following the Inayawan landfill closure.
The councilor said they will ask the sewage treatment plant owner to allow the haulers to pay for their dumping of wastes on a per cubic meter basis.
The haulers complained that dumping the wastes outside Cebu City will be too expensive.
The septic haulers pay the city P5,000 to P10,000 a month for dumping their septic wastes at the Inayawan landfill.
Mayor Michael Rama ordered the closure of the landfill for septic waste last June 1 after the leachate level in Inayawan exceeded the threshold level set by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in Central Visayas (DENR-7).
The sanitary landfill has no existing wastewater treatment facility, resulting in wastewater being dumped directly to the Mactan channel. Correspondent Fatrick Tabada
