The City Government eyes a 100% coverage of garbage collection within a 10-year period starting next year.
According to Marivic Reyes, head of the City Environment and Natural Resources Office (Cenro), the garbage trucks serve 112 out of the 182 barangays in the city.
“We will see to it that all of the barangays will be covered with the garbage collection. However, with a limited fund, we will implement it on a staggered basis,” Reyes said.
In the 10-Year Integrated Solid Waste Management Plan, they consider a number of barangays to be included in the collection “until such time that we will be able to complete the whole 182 barangays.”
Reyes, however, said they have yet to present the number of barangays to be included in the first year.
City Administrator Zuleika Lopez added that among the limiting factors of the city’s problem for a 100% collection coverage is the lack of resources.
“As much as we want to buy all the compactors and dump trucks, the city does not simply have all the resources to buy all of that in one time so we distributed it through a number of years as part of the solid waste management plan,” said Lopez.
On the other hand, a Commission on Audit (COA) report noted that the “Cenro was not able to implement on time its activities and project in the Ten-Year Integrated Solid Waste Management Plan.”
The agency further commented that the non-implementation of solid wast management related activities and projects “(hinder) the achievement of desired goals towards the protection of public health and the environment through proper solid waste management.”
