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ENVIRONMENT Secretary Lito Atienza has ordered mayors
and governors to close down open dumps in their
localities or face the consequence of the law.
Atienza
was referring to Republic Act 9003, otherwise known as
the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2003, which
prohibits the operation of open dumps and mandates local
governments to come up with comprehensive solid-waste
management plans for the communities.
Records
of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR)
show that there are 826 open dumps in different parts of
the country.
Atienza
said local chief executives have been given sufficient
time to comply with the law that tasked local
governments to haul and dispose their own garbage. The
barangays are tasked to collect the garbage from
households.
The law
promotes the segregation, recycling and composting of
waste at the household and barangay level, before being
hauled to a controlled facility where the garbage is
processed to minimize, if not totally prevent,
pollution.
“Local
governments have been given sufficient time to comply
with Republic Act 9003, or the Ecological Solid Waste
Management Act. The law calls for the closure of all
open dumps within three years after the effectivity of
the law. The law was passed in 2000, yet, to this day,
there are still 826 open dumps all over the country,”
Atienza said.
He gave
local executives six months to comply with the directive
and warned those who fail to meet the deadline would be
charged in court.
“I am
giving local governments a grace period of six months to
comply with the law. However, let me inform local
officials that two months from now, DENR regional
officials will start checking on their compliance,”
Atienza said.
Section
1, Rule 13 of RA 9003 provides that within three years
from the effectivity of the law, all open dumps shall be
converted to controlled dumps. Controlled dumps, on the
other hand, are to be operated only within five years,
and beyond said period these facilities shall be deemed
closed and phased out.
DENR
records show that there are 359 controlled dumps
nationwide, including four in Metro Manila.
“We have
to fast-track the conversion of all dumps not only to
protect the health of our people, but also to mitigate
global warming and climate change,” Atienza said.
He said
open dumps are very unsanitary because they attract all
kinds of parasites that, in turn, afflict people with
different kinds of illnesses. Aside from that, he said,
the garbage that accumulates in the dump sites produce
leachate and contaminate groundwater.
Atienza
also said the methane gas emitted by decaying organic
matter in the dumps is 21 times more potent than carbon
dioxide in causing global warming.
Atienza
assured local governments that the DENR, through its
regional officials, shall be on hand to extend technical
assistance not only to hasten the closure and
rehabilitation of their dumpsites but also to establish
their materials, recovery facilities, as well as find
potential sites for sanitary landfills.
At the
same time, Atienza asked the local executives to
continuously encourage their constituents to practice
garbage recycling. |
