Tuesday, January 11, 2011

P500-m Payatas deal signing reset out of courtesy

QUEZON City Mayor Herbert Bautista on Monday deferred formal approval of the multi-million peso deal on a landfill replacing the Payatas dump due to parliamentary courtesy.

He was set to sign the contract with Isabelita Paredes Mercado, president of winning bidder IPM Environmental Services Inc. but opted to have the QC Council ratify the undertaking first.

“The Mayor decided to refer the contract for ratification by the City Council for good measure,” said chief of staff Aldrin Cuna in a text message.

Mercado’s group bagged the three-year contract for P481,797,095.64 million annually to operate the 3.2-hectare sanitary landfill located about 300 meters away from the old dump that was closed down on December 31.

Following the Ecological Solid Waste Managementm Act, the city government phased out the site after three decades of hosting the garbage of a number of Metro Manila cities.

“The new sanitary landfill will be exclusively for Quezon City’s use,” said Cuna, adding that operation is in full swing.

Under the contract, payment to IPM will be shared between the Quezon City government and the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority.

Given its charter, MMDA has the mandate, among others, for the “establishment and operation of sanitary landfill and related facilities and the implementation of other alternative programs intended to reduce, reuse and recycle solid waste.”

Frederika Rentoy, chief of QC Environmental Protection and Waste Management, said would pay about P600 per ton in tipping fee of waste taken to the landfill with both the agency and local government monitoring the operation for compliance with safety and environmental laws.

As stipulated, IPM would also handle leachate collection and ensure odor control at the waste containement area while managing methane extraction at the closed dump to continue the city’s “waste-to-energy” program.

Rentoy said a power-generating system was set up at the old site to harvest biogas emissions and produce electricity to light up houses in the community.

On top of waste management, IPM will “undertake the greening of buffer zone and capped waste mound and provide security for the entire facility” and “maintain waterways and storm drainage system in the area.”

A key component of the contract is a recycling facility to process at least 35 percent of the volume of the incoming waste.

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