SJDM folk concerned over landfill

Residents here are clamoring for the
closure of the VGP Sanitary Landfill located in Bgy. Minuyan.

In Tuesday’s Mass held in front of the landfill’s gate, they sought
divine intervention to protect the residents and environment of the
city from the perceived ill-effects posed by garbage dump.

Tonight learned from Fr. Ety Ignacio, parish priest of the Saint Peter
Parish in Bgy. Tungkong Mangga, that they are opposed to the
sanitary landfill, operated by the Puyat Group of Companies since it
is located in a residential area and near the compound of the local
water district there.

Ignacio explained that the continuous dumping of garbage in the area
might pose health hazards to the residents living near the landfill,
and could contaminate the potable water being supplied by the local
water district.

The priest said that they are also protesting the dumping of garbage
from other towns at the landfill because the roads being used by dump
trucks hauling garbage from other towns will deteriorate fast.

Residents, church leaders, environmentalists and other people’s
organizations are also worried that the landfill, constructed near the
Marikina fault line, might pose danger to the environment when a
strong earth quake occurs and eventually contaminate their
groundwater.

Instead of the landfill, Ignacio said that they are pushing for
zero-waste management in answer to the growing garbage problem of the
city.

Bro. Martin Francisco, chairperson of the Sagip Sierra Madre
Environmental Society Inc., echoed Ignacio’s sentiments, adding that
their group is against the dumping of mixed waste in the sanitary
landfill as specified in the provisions of Republic Act 9003 or the
Ecological Solid Waste Management Act.

Francisco said, only residual wastes are allowed to be brought in a
sanitary landfill and mixed wastes are not allowed to be dumped there.

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