DEC. 5, 2008

SOMETHING SMELLS!

By Alan S. Gensoli

Last Nov. 3, 2008, DENR Regional Executive Director Lormelyn Claudio met with members of the Bacolod Anti-Baha Alliance. It was a candid exchange of information, ideas, and aspirations. Later, we learned that the meeting was upon the urging of DENR Sec. Lito Atienza, and for this we thank him and Reg. Exec. Dir. Claudio very much. 

At the end of the meeting, Reg. Exec. Dir. Claudio asked the Anti-BAHA to help the DENR monitor the city’s compliance to a new timetable set by the DENR official with Mayor Evelio Leonardia on Nov. 2, 2008. We couldn’t pass up the chance to be of help, and so we accepted the offer. 

Additionally, Reg. Exec. Dir. Claudio asked the Anti-BAHA to help in an information, education, and communication campaign intended to educate all of us about Solid Waste Management (SWM). Although this is the responsibility of the city government, everyone’s help is needed because the task of educating our community is daunting. 

Based on the new timetable jointly minted by the DENR and the city government, the most important date to watch is Dec. 5, 2008. On that day, the city will no longer pick up unsegregated or mixed garbage. The city will only pick up residual waste. Thus, it is high time we change our lifestyle, from one that paid no regard for the environment, to another that is respectful of the environment. What then should we do? 

First, we must REFUSE. Refuse using plastic bags, especially the sando plastic bags we use to bring our groceries home. Used bags that can be washed and reused. Many of you must have seen the katcha bags sold by the Baha that says, “Hoy! Naga-usar ka pa ya plastic bag?” Also require your cooks to do their marketing using the good old native basket. Second, if we can’t refuse, let us at least REDUCE. We should not allow vendors to put fish, meat, or produce in two, sometimes three plastic bags. One plastic bag is more than enough. When you go to supermarkets, instead of putting different vegetables in separate plastic bags, put them in one and place all the price stickers (bar codes) outside that one plastic bag.

Third, RECYCLE. If you notice, the first step to recycling is washing the used packaging clean so that while we store them at home before we are able to sell them to the junk shop, they will not stink and attract all sorts of scavengers. When the packaging is hard to wash, we usually just don’t bother to wash it. Instead, we discard it as trash. So, the key to recycling is buying products whose packaging are easily washed and cleaned. Small shampoo sachets should be avoided - too tedious to wash. Buy shampoo in bottles or plastic bottles because these are easy to wash and, therefore, are recyclable. From time to time, SM City hosts a junk day where we can sell our recyclables. Patronize this activity so that SM will be encouraged to conduct this more often, like once a week. I congratulate SM further for distributing flyers to subdivisions listing the types of packaging they want to buy back and for how much 

Fourth, REUSE. If you don’t want to sell used packaging to junk shops, then reuse them as containers. Better still, when you check out grocery shelves, prefer packagings you know you will reuse. And this is the reason why I don’t want to use sando bags. Sando bags are often reused as garbage bags, so they still end up at the dumpsite. Two wrongs do not make a right. Some suggest, use sando bags as throw pillow stuffing. Well, if you dig resting your back against a throw pillow that makes a funny noise each time you move, go ahead. It’s just not my trip. So, I avoid the sando bag. 

And fifth, we must ROT. Garden trimmings and kitchen scrap, such as fruit peel, can be composted. Dig a hole in your backyard and bury these. There are two ways you can hasten decomposition: 

First, chop the trimmings or scrap into smaller pieces so microbes have more surface to thrive on. 

Second, if you have extra cooked rice, don’t throw it away. Put one kilo cooked rice in a basin, cover with cloth so your pets don’t get into it, and store it in a dark place. After three days, check for molds. You want the white molds (any other color would be bad). Mix the moldy rice with one kilo molasses or sugar and let it stay for seven more days. Squeeze out the liquid from this mixture. You will get at least one liter of liquid IMO, or indigenous micro-organisms. Mix one liter liquid IMO with 50 liters water. Spray this solution (IMO-water mixture) into your compost pit weekly, using just enough solution to wet your compost material. 

If you can’t use all of the 50 liters solution right away, don’t mix the liquid IMO with water first. Just store the liquid IMO as is until you need it. But in storing the liquid IMO, add molasses or sugar into it (3 tablespoons molasses per 1 liter liquid IMO) so the microbes have food. 

Before you know it, you have good organic fertilizer to use in your garden. If you are euphorbic (meaning, you love euphorbias), your euphorbias will blossom so much better. Isn’t that nice?*

COMPOSTING

SOMETHING SMELLS!

By Marilyn M. Soliven

Because we produce waste, we contribute to the mounting garbage problem. One of the solutions to the problem is composting and this could be done at home. The rewards of composting are manifold. A sack of compost can fetch at least two hundred pesos or more nowadays. You will also find your garden healthier in no time with minimal effort and cost. 

Composting is the natural breakdown by microbes of organic material to a loose, dark and “earth-like” substance. A composting system confines the organic material so that the breakdown is accelerated. 

You can start composting by using old, well-drained garbage bins, wooden boxes (that you can have by the kitchen), or in a simple heap accumulated in your garden! 

Here are some tips to start your project. This is so easy. 

Method:

1. Choose a Site: Choose an area that’s convenient to reach with lots of room to move around so you can easily add materials, preferrably close to a source of water, i.e. garden hose. Place your compost heap or bin in a well-drained area that has some shade. Too much sun will dry out your compost. 

2. Adding the right Ingredients: Compost needs a mixture of rich organic materials such as fruit and vegetable peelings (from the kitchen), banana trunks and fresh cut grass, as well as nitrogen-poor materials such as dry leaves, woody twigs and paper. 

3. Layering the Ingredients: Start with a thick layer of brown or dry, coarse material, such as twigs or mulch. Follow with a layer of green or wet material, such as garden and grass clippings, food and vegetable scraps. Add water after each layer to keep heap moist but not wet. There is no strict formula so don’t worry, just layer. Invent. 

4. Maintaining Your Compost: Keep your compost well aerated to prevent foul odors or methane. Fluff or turn your compost on a weekly basis to hasten decomposition. Otherwise place bamboo trunks through the heap to allow air in. 

How to tell when it’s done:
Within about six to eight weeks, your compost is finished when the original material has been transformed into a moist, earthy matter. Congratulations! You now have rich, organic home fertilizer! 

Compost Heap Ingredients:
Vegetable and food scraps
Fallen leaves (in layers)
Tea leaves and tea bags
Coffee grounds
Soft stems
Dead flowers
Crushed egg shells
Old newspapers (wet)
Grass cuttings in layers

What not to add to a Compost Heap:
Meat and dairy products
Diseased plants
Metals, plastic, glass
Animal manures (especially the droppings of cats and dogs)
Fat
Magazines
Large Branches
Weeds that have seeds or underground stems
Bread or cake (may attract mice)
Bones*

WHAT IS RESIDUAL WASTE?

SOMETHING SMELLS!

By Alan S. Gensoli

You must have heard about the term in passing conversation, even in heated discussion, but thought nothing particular of it. Perhaps it’s just another nickname for garbage. Actually, “residual waste” is a lot more than that, and our success in Solid Waste Management work is hinged on our clear understanding of it. 

The implementation of SWM, as stipulated by Republic Act 9003, requires segregation at source where garbage is created. That means, households are responsible and accountable under the law. Households are expected to recycle, reuse, and rot compostable waste. What remains after recycling, reusing, and rotting is residual waste. And this is what the government, under the law, is required to collect-residual waste and residual waste only. So it’s not just another name for garbage. It’s the only kind of garbage government will pick up. 

To give you an idea of how much residual waste is, compared to total waste generated in the households, we look to the record of E.B. Magalona. Former Mayor Diding Gamboa, who sits with us in the SWM committee, tells that during the implementation of garbage segregation in his municipality, residual waste was a mere 250 grams per household, per day. That’s just two slices of pork chop. 

Several months back, the Bacolod Anti-Baha Alliance started an SWM pilot project in Brgy. Vista Alegre, here in Bacolod. Ourselves new to the discipline, we sought the technical guidance of Joel Jaquinta, the action officer of the E.B. Magalona experience. The first step in SWM work is waste characterization, or conducting an inventory of the types of garbage generated by a community. It is said, no two communities have the same exact types of garbage, some have more bottles than others, some have more plastic bags, some have more garden trimmings. Knowing the “character” of your garbage will guide you to institute the right SWM measures. 

At Brgy. Vista Alegre we collected garbage from random houses for an entire week, which accumulated to 11 sacks. We segregated and characterized all the contents of each sack. In the end, out of 11 sacks, residual waste was contained in only one-the rest were recyclables, reusables, and compostables. In this case, residual waste is not even 10% of total waste generated in the households. 

Based on the foregoing, if one is to seek out a strict definition of residual waste, it is this, that residual waste is any waste that you can no longer recycle, reuse, or rot. It is, in fact, a loose definition, its vastness unfortunately encompassing hazardous waste-spent batteries and light bulbs, paint and other chemical-laden materials-which can only be taken off the list of residual waste when government makes an earnest effort to pick these up separately and dispose of them scientifically. But the definition is loose for good reason. As it were, residual waste provides a laundry list of things we have yet to do. Time will come when items initially lumped under residual waste will find solution. Perhaps recycling, perhaps reusing, perhaps Eveready and Panasonic will buy back old batteries, perhaps Boysen and Davies will buy back paint leftovers and paint cans, perhaps Firefly will pick up broken lighting fixtures, perhaps Modess will pick up its used sanitary napkins, perhaps Chowking will pick up its Styro food take-out packages and dispose of this very dangerous material in its own backyard and not in ours. When that time comes, the amount of residual waste should even decrease. And that is the beginning of the road to Zero Waste Management-a life where “garbage” has become “resource” so that the idea of garbage is no longer existent, nada, zero, zilch, wala! Utopia? But Utopia that is possible and now being enjoyed by some communities, including Forbes Park in Makati and at least one house I know in Bacolod. 

Now you know how very far behind we are here in Bacolod. But necessity is the mother of segregation, and should Brgy. Felisa residents succeed in preventing further garbage dumping in their area, then we could all be thrown to a zero-waste lifestyle sooner than later, faster than you can yelp, “Oh, no!”. Even so, we should be so lucky. 

Going back to the law...and to our present medieval times...having realized that government will only pick up residual waste, we now hold some common perceptions about garbage disposal, suspect. 

First, contrary to the city’s plan to purchase more dump trucks, we don’t need more dump trucks because government will only be picking up residual waste. Assuming that Vista Alegre findings are applicable to the entire city, we only need 10% of current dump truck service. Imagine the savings, just by doing our share at home, just by segregating our garbage. 

Second, we don’t need to build a huge sanitary landfill all at once because the amount of garbage to be collected under the law has been greatly reduced, to less than 10% of garbage being collected at present, if the Vista Alegre study is used as basis. This means, government can for now build a modest-size landfill and expand it as the need arises. There is less reason to procrastinate on the construction of the sanitary landfill because immediate fund requirement will be reduced, or should be reduced. 

Based on its garbage stats, Bacolod is required to build a Category 4 landfill, which is the most expensive of four categories, because it requires the immediate construction of a leachate treatment pond where garbage juice is trapped and treated. Category 4 includes communities with at least 200 tons of garbage per day. Now, in the last SOCA of Mayor Bing Leonardia, he claimed that Bacolod has reduced its garbage to 150 tons per day-is that total garbage or just collected garbage? Granting government benefit of the doubt and agreeing that that is total garbage, well then, Councilor Greg Gasataya, Chairman of the Clean and Green Committee, should make representations to the National Solid Waste Management Commission to re-classify Bacolod’s sanitary landfill to Category 3, a less expensive facility. But let’s push pencil further: If we say that with SWM our residual waste will be less than 10% of what it is today, following Vista Alegre data, then Bacolod’s landfill should be further downgraded to a far lower category requiring a far cheaper landfill. And the dream of building our sanitary landfill will cease to be farfetched. 

Third, contrary to the intention of putting a lot of trash bins in public areas, these only encourage non-compliance with the law. Since the law requires that we segregate at source, meaning at home, when we create garbage in public areas, we should bring them home for segregation. Mayor Marides Fernando of Marikina City has been giving school children candy to force the habit of bringing garbage home (thanks for using our sugar, too, Mayor Marides). After the flag ceremony, children eat the candy and put the wrappers in their pockets to take home. Her campaign slogan? “Mumunting basura, ibulsa mo na.” Simple but creative. And effective. And there’s nothing anti-poor about teaching people to clean up after themselves. 

Fourth, residents who believe that the current garbage collection schedule is not enough, because maybe they generate more garbage than can be picked up in, say, one collection, might be barking up at the wrong tree. The solution to this problem lies not with government, but with us. By collecting residual waste only, government should not add more garbage collection trips. It might even have to reduce the frequency of collection for obvious reasons, but also to drive the point to the public that we are required to segregate at source. 

Finally, but perhaps most important of all, residents who argue against segregating garbage at home because “anyway the garbage collector mixes them” now find themselves without a leg to stand on. All the while we thought that after segregating our garbage these will be picked up by garbage collectors using a segregated collection schedule, plastics one day, bottles another day, grass cuttings yet another day. I know, that’s the system in the States. Not according to Philippine law. R.A. 9003 suggests we sell our recyclables to the junk shop, reuse our reusables, and rot our compostable trash. Garbage collectors will pick up residual waste only. So, what is there for them to mix? Nada. 

It’s time we abandon this argument. If we persist, it could only mean one thing-we are lazy to segregate. A word to the wise: Get into the habit of segregation now before the penalty clause of the law finally clamps down on you. Let us not wait for the day when government will leave our garbage in front of our homes because it is not residual waste. And commercial establishments should not wait for the time to come when they can no longer renew their business permits because they do not practice SWM. I’m not saying that that time will truly come. I’m just saying that it truly could.*

ON THE SUBJECT OF LANDFILLS

SOMETHING SMELLS

By: Lourdes Ledesma 

             While the controversy rages around the proposed new landfill of Bacolod City, allow me to backtrack a bit (for the uninformed reader) and clarify what a landfill is all about, as compared to what the city presently has for its garbage dump. What it has now is an open, uncontrolled area, where unclassified garbage of all kinds is just dumped together, in a place near a water source and residential dwellings. For some who have not seen the place, it is located in Bgy. Felisa.

          Responsible waste management is the process of removing wastes from living and work areas in ways that protect human health and the environment. Many cities in advanced societies opt for various strategies for solid waste disposal, and a landfill is just one of them. Waste disposal is the final stage after other processes have been done, such as recycling, waste reduction, reuse, energy recovery (methane gas), and leachate treatment. Incorporating all these processes in a sanitary landfill scenario require much capital and sophisticated equipment. Most communities may just opt for the entombment of their garbage in a simple landfill.

        Still, a “simple” landfill is not so simple to construct. It is not just choosing a place for a garbage dump. By the way, open garbage dumps are now illegal in most civilized countries in the world. In third world countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia, the open garbage dump is the most primitive type. There is a trend toward upgrading these dumps into landfills. In this country our garbage dump has just become illegal, with the enactment of Republic Act 9003 (The Ecological Solid Waste Management of 2002). We’re trying to catch up with the rest of the world, but we still have to close our open dumps and construct landfills. Actually, the whole purpose of modern landfills is to safely entomb waste so that uncontrolled degradation doesn’t endanger ground water and so that the land can be used after the landfill is capped and sealed. Parks, golf courses and even airports have been built on top of closed landfills. Entombment of waste is designed to limit degradation to take place so slowly so that the surface of the landfill does not shift.

        Besides the garbage type of landfill, there is another type modern cities use for construction and demolition waste, such as broken cement, asphalt, brick, metals, drywall, roofing, and old tires. Since these materials do not biodegrade, the requirements for this type of landfill are not so stringent.

       There are several kinds of landfills:  

1.    Semi-controlled dump – this type, although one step above the open dump, has no engineering, leachate or gas effluent management, but has some operation in placement of waste and recovery. Scavengers are allowed.

2.    Controlled dump – the same features, except for the addition of compaction of waste. Less scavengers.

3.    Engineered landfill – has infrastructure, clay and plastic liners, containment of leachate and its treatment, passive ventilation of gas, compaction of waste and daily soil cover.

4.    Sanitary landfill – has proper siting, infrastructure, leachate treatment, gas flaring (burning), compaction of waste and daily soil cover.

5.    Sanitary landfill with top seal – same features plus a top seal of, and the entombment of leachate.

6.    Controlled contaminant release landfill – same features except for a controlled release of leachate, and a final top cover. The monitoring of leachate and its environmental impact after the landfill has been closed continues for several years.

The requirements of a SANITARY LANDFILL are more stringent and require more technology, capital and monitoring. Is this the choice of our city? For example:

1. The choice of the site must meet environmental standards of safety, i.e., away from rivers, reservoirs, lakes, the ocean, and far from residential and commercial areas.

2.    The landfill must be properly engineered and constructed to receive and hold waste. There are standards to be met, such as having several feet of compacted clay at the base, and then lined with several layers of thick flexible non-degrading plastic films to prevent leachate from entering ground water. The lining is protected by more clay. There should also be a system of pumping out leachate and treating it in holding tanks.

3.    Methane gas, a product of biodegradation, is either converted into biofuel or oxidized safely into the air. It is a factor contributing heavily to global warming.

4.    Compaction of waste and covering of soil daily to reduce vermin and odors is the responsibility of the landfill operator, and presupposes the use of bulldozers and other heavy equipment.

     In the Philippines and in other Asian countries, the landfills are owned and operated by the municipality. In more developed countries, the landfills are owned and operated by private contractors, who are given tax credits or tax breaks. In the UK, for example, landfill operators who use their site for recycling, sorting and waste incineration can apply to have the relevant area designated as a tax-free area. The government also imposes a tax on certain types of waste deposited in landfill, in order to encourage recycling and reduce the amount of waste. Waste is weighed and is charged on a per ton basis, except for construction waste, which is charged a lower rate. The charges are passed on to the taxpayer as part of their utility bill or property tax, or a “pay-as-you-go” scheme.

      Metro Manila operates two landfills: in Carmona and San Mateo. Smokey Mountain is in rehabilitation. Puerto Princesa inaugurated in March, 2006, a state-of-the-art engineered sanitary landfill facility, the first of its kind in the country and the first to fully comply with R.A. 9003. It cost P230 million and is a project undertaken jointly by the Department of Local Government (DILG) with funding assistance from the Asian Development Bank. In Mindanao, Tacurong City has built a Category 2 sanitary landfill, with a capacity of 75 tons per day, funded by the USAID.

       Quo vadis, Bacolod City?

 

        

WALA PLASTIKANAY!

SOMETHING SMELLS

By Gigi M. Campos

Plastic bags are everywhere! Everyday, we are handed countless plastic bags: when we go to the sari-sari store, a flea market or ukay-ukay, a book store, or an eatery. Why, because plastic bags are convenient --  they are water resistant, light and inexpensive compared to paper bags. Yet most of the time, plastic bags are actually superfluous and avoidable. So why does it seem that sales clerks are ever so eager to hand out plastic bags for any and all kinds of purchases, big or small? Sometimes, a plastic bag may not just be necessary for that  inasal you are about to eat or that soft drink you are going to drink right away. Here are some  questions we should ask ourselves whenever we are handed a plastic bag:

o   Do I need to take as many plastic bags when I go to the grocery?

o   Do I need a plastic bag for an item purchased that is already well packaged by the manufacturer?

o   Could I bring my own shopping bag when making purchases?

Plastic bags are the cause of major environmental concerns. Statistics show that we are consuming more and more plastics every year. It is estimated that an average individual uses around 130 plastic bags per year.  Most of them go straight to our landfill and a very small percentage of plastic bags are actually recycled. A reduction in our use of plastic bags is essential in solving the environmental problems stemming from them.

Plastic bags and packaging account for a major part of our waste in landfills. More importantly, plastic bags are one of the top items of litter on our community beaches, roads, sidewalks, and vegetation along with cigarette butts and styrofoam. Plastic bags are light and hard to contain. Because of their light weight, plastic bags fly easily in the wind, float along readily in the currents of rivers and oceans, get tangled up in trees, fences, poles, and so forth, blocking our drainage. As we have realized, garbage thrown in our waterways is one of the major causes of flooding.

          And there is virtually no market for recycling plastic bags especially the most common in use, the very thin “sando” plastic bags. Very few recycling centers accept plastic bags because they are of little recyclable value. On the other hand, most paper bags are made from recycled paper. There is a profitable market in paper recycling and the paper bags can be used and recycled. In addition, this promotes "Buying Recycled" which is the only way that recycling efforts will ever become successful.

The best alternative to using plastic bags is using cloth bags and degradable bags. Businesses will save on cost in providing plastic bags when consumers use less of them and bring their own bags. SM Supermarket and Unilever launched last June  a project called Greenbag campaign in response to the country's solid waste issue. Under the SM Concerned and Responsible Eco-shoppers (SM Cares) campaign, SM Supermarkets encourage consumers to use a reusable, green, non-woven bag as a replacement for plastic shopping bags when shopping at the mall. And it offers its Advantage Card holders additional points for using the Greenbag.

 

         The international crisis, which plastic bags are creating, is indicated by the fact that most nations recognize the problem and are making strong attempts to eliminate the use and production of plastic bags. Many countries in Europe and Asia are attempting to eradicate plastic bags -- like eradicating pests such as rodents and cockroaches.  Some are banning plastic bags altogether while others are implementing a tax on plastic bags to decrease their use such as in Bangladesh. They were found to have been the main culprit during the 1988 and 1998 floods that submerged two-thirds of the country. The problem was that discarded bags were choking the drainage system. India also eliminated the use of plastic bags to prevent them from littering the streets and clogging up the city's sewerage system. As a result, merchants have switched to recycled paper bags and litter in the city has been reduced considerably. 
In Ireland, a tax on plastic bags was introduced. Essentially, each plastic bag handed out costs the consumer an extra 15 cents. After the tax scheme began in March 2002, it is estimated the plastic bags available at stores have been decreased by 90%.

 

These are great success stories from various countries working out the problem of plastic bags. They have set examples on how a ban or a tax on plastic bags may work. What are we doing about this problem? It’s about time our city officials seriously look into banning plastics or putting a tax on plastic bags. The recent floods in 2006  and 2007 that inundated 60% of  our city should be reason enough to do this immediately. 

The most effective way of reducing the amount of plastic litter in the environment is to reduce our consumption.  It’s these very plastic bags that block sewage passages and create pools of water that transform into a breeding ground for mosquitoes resulting in dengue and malaria. Let’s begin today by refusing a plastic bag when making a purchase, especially if what you are buying can fit in your pocket or bag.  Better still, bring your own bag.  Keep it handy by having it with you in your vehicle, in your knapsack or handbag.

A heavy plastic tax should be implemented to hit people where it hurts them the most - their wallets!! With the economic meltdown affecting economies world-wide, it’s time to go back to the basics.   How about carrying our purchases the good old Filipino way – in bayongs, just as our grandparents did not too long ago.  As consumers, how long will we have wait for our city officials to tackle the problem of plastic bags?  We know the snail pace by which our bureaucracy moves and we have also seen first hand the distorted priorities of the present dispensation. 

Our earth is under threat of being destroyed by the internal greed of those that inhabit it. And in the politics of today where we see the winner-take-all system dominate, this greed for power, money and glory is what relegates the important and pressing issues like flooding, garbage and illegal squatters to the background.

But let us not be afraid that we cannot make an impact. We live in a democracy. Our involvement can shape policy. Taking care of the world we live in is our responsibility. The beauty of God’s  creation is ours to enjoy but with this gift comes a responsibility. Mahatma Gandhi said, "Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed." Let’s pray that change will come soon -  if not from law restrictions of government then from our own individual efforts. The most important contribution to this campaign will come from you and me! 

So there, you still want to use plastic?

ON THE STREET WHERE YOU POO

SOMETHING SMELLS

By Alan S. Gensoli

Come, feel the breeze, sway to the tune of an old favorite lilting in the wind…“I have often walked down the street before, but the pavement always stayed beneath my feet before, and all at once I’m several stories high, knowing I’m on the street…” where you pooh, that’s where!

The Bacolod Anti-Baha Alliance (Baha) monitoring team recently shared with its members its latest discovery. Driving into the reclamation area on Burgos Street, just before you reach the entrance to SM City and to the north of the junk shop, is a community of squatters. On touring the village, our monitoring team discovered a cemented street where children were freely moving their bowels, in broad daylight (imagine a free-for-all when the sun comes down!). We have videos and photos to show the spectacle. The street is booby-trapped with these “stink bombs” like it was the most natural thing to happen in a city supposedly as clean and green as Bacolod, and in a section of town that’s just a stone’s throw from city hall. This is certainly one for the books, the Guinness book! And a once beautiful song is forever silenced for these horrible images it has come to be associated with.

Hygiene, or basic cleanliness, is at the very foundation of Solid Waste Management work. Many towns and cities in the country that have gone ahead of Bacolod in SWM implementation started their campaigns with massive cleanliness drives, to make their citizens experience cleanliness and appreciate SWM in the process. The idea is to make citizens desire cleanliness with a passion and disdain filthiness forever.

While good health is the benefit of SWM, cleanliness is the palpable representation of it. Cleanliness makes the intangible concept of good health seem tangible. Our common belief is, when something looks clean it must be healthy, although the latter may not be guaranteed by the former. Good health often remains an idea until we get very sick. In fact, we know good health because we have gotten sick before, or know someone who has gotten ill. But why wait to be sick if you can prevent it? Cleanliness will help. SWM will help us become clean and healthy.

On the road to the Beijing Games, I recall laughing at news about how China was rushing to teach its citizens how to comport themselves cleanly. They even had spit police, to stop their centuries-old habit of spitting. We don’t spit as much, but we have our share of dirty habits.

Every year I visit major cities in the country from north to south, and I am sad to admit that we seem to have one of the dirtiest public toilets. Forget about lifting the toilet seat when we pee, that’s already graduate school stuff for many. I’m talking about the basic consideration of shooting your pee in the bowl. I have seen too many men’s rooms in Bacolod with urine all over, not just on toilet seats, not just in the periphery of the toilet bowl, but all over the floor. Just last Sunday, while at church, nature called so I went to the CR. Same pee all over the floor. In church? This is juvenile delinquency. Does the owner of the pee not know that he is spreading bacteria?

This is the great challenge that the SWM campaign of Bacolod City is facing, and must face at all cost. Without meaning to generalize, we have a people who don’t give a hoot about being filthy. Let us not think the pee trivial, for it is a symptom of a social disease in metastasis. Last October 6^th I wrote here about a trisikad driver plying Lacson Street, paid to dump trash along the street at 2 a.m. by unscrupulous residents who are willing to pay for the service. Abada-Escay, the city’s relocation site, is also a victim of this. Some neighboring residents are reportedly dumping trash at Abada-Escay! Is it not enough that the resettled squatters in Abada-Escay have no drainage and electricity, we also have to dump trash on them? Whoever is guilty, may God have mercy on your souls.

On September 19, our co-columnist Agnes Jalandoni cited on this space that out of our close to 500,000 population, 300,000 more or less are squatters. I’m sure this is owed largely to our LGU’s open-arms policy to people coming into the big city for greener pasture. Mayor Bing Leonardia has always declared that he is pro-poor, and I’m sure he will go to heaven for that. But if we don’t police our growing community against people who unabashedly dirty it, we’ll all be filthy as hell long before Mayor Bing assumes to heaven. And don’t anyone dare accuse me of painting the poor a bad picture. Cleanliness does not discriminate. There are clean poor as well as dirty poor. And that holds true for those who have more in life.

Do we have to be told to shoot our pee straight? Does Mayor Bing have to tell us not to relieve ourselves on the streets, or dump our garbage in somebody else’s front yard? This is a bit much to expect out of government, isn’t it? Yet, government must deal with it.

SWM in this city cannot begin, let alone progress, if individually we do not value hygiene, or at least desire to be clean. It is no joke to educate half a million people about SWM. This is the task that now faces Mayor Bing Leonardia and Councilor Greg Gasataya, the Chairman of the Clean and Green Committee. Let’s help them. Let’s be part of the solution. Let us patrol our ranks against the shameless and the filthy among us. If SWM is legislated to start at home, and if cleanliness is a first step to SWM, then cleanliness must start in our homes, if not at the urging of our mothers, then by all means at the urging of city hall.

Writing this State of Cleanliness Address so soon after the Masskara Festival may not be fair. Logic tells, if the city looks unclean on the heels of the festival, then perhaps it has explanation to be so. What is downright unreasonable is for the city to be unclean the rest of the year; the observations of the Baha monitoring team at the reclamation area were made in mid-September and early October, in any case prior to the festival. That said, however, it should not give government excuse to delay clean-up after the Masskara. Neither does it exonerate corporate sponsors from taking down banderitas that suffocate our streets. And more importantly, dispose of them responsibly. These, after all, are made from nasty plastic.

One more thing about being clean: Our city’s image and coffers stand to gain each time we receive a clean-and-green award, and we should get it, even fight for it, if we deserve it. If we don’t deserve it, any award is a disservice, for it becomes a reason to be complacent and an alibi to justify inefficiency. Who doesn’t want an award? We all do. But let us work for it.

 

IS THIS THE LEGACY WE ARE LEAVING BEHIND?

SOMETHING SMELLS 

By Carmen Rossello

  One morning, I woke up and saw most of our surroundings in water. And I was thinking, we just had a few hours of rainfall and we get this? My God! There wasn’t even a typhoon signal announced on either television or radio! The flood reminded me of the power of nature and its wrath if man neglected his duty to protect and preserve his environment. It did not matter if one was rich or poor, every one had to suffer the consequences. The flood engulfed sugarcane fields, roads, residential and commercial areas. Yes, Bacolod had the taste of what people from Manila and Iloilo experience, when heavy rains occur. Like other residents of Bacolod, I could not believe the events that transpired on that infamous day. It was like watching news on TV in Bangladesh, but would you believe this happened in the City of Smiles? 

  In this capital of our beloved province Negros Occidental, illegal structures in river banks, esteros, floodways, seashores and creeks have mushroomed into shanty towns. Empty lots - private and public ones - road sides and bridges have become havens for encroachers and “enterprising” families building makeshift homes, eateries, sari-sari stores, car repair and vulcanizing shops (some even made of concrete). This also explains the problem on discipline, indifference and the respect for the law. Funny thing is that, they blatantly do their squatting all under the noses of politicians, government and law enforcement agencies. (Try heading to SM Bacolod behind the Provincial Capitol and you’ll see two streets full of squatter communities.) Aren’t we slowly destroying the quality of life we are bragging about? A stroll in the city would show a long stretch of land filled with illegal structures and squatters. 

  Fisher folk families refuse relocation with excuses that they belong to the sea and they don’t have an alternative source of living. They brave the storms and gamble with their lives as they can’t go back to their hometowns to plant camote. 

  My dear readers, have you not seen the wastes, especially PLASTICS, that are thrown indiscriminately? Piles of garbage end up in streets, canals and drainage are clogged up, and garbage end in riverbanks, creeks, and sidewalks. A leisurely stroll in many streets in Bacolod would make one wonder where the piles of wastes and plastic come from and why the residents themselves can’t do something about it. 

  Officials tell us that the drainage system is old and needs to be improved. They can no longer cope up with the increasing number of families now residing in Bacolod and the nearby cities and municipalities. But aren’t they supposed to monitor the areas near the rivers, creeks and drainages and free these from illegal structures and residents who flock the area and dispose their trash indiscriminately? Laws have been created but they are not being enforced at all. 

  Taking a deeper look at reasons for this migratory pattern, we get a myriad of problems associated with “just a garbage problem”. With the influx of people from areas outside Bacolod trying to get a better life in the city, we would expect that opportunities become scarce. In a dog-eat-dog world, opportunities have become monopolized by the strong and blessed. The rest would be jostling for scraps until the scraps become unavailable. This would account for unemployment and underemployment. And little, menial or no work would mean no money for basic necessities like food, shelter, clothing, medicine and education. No work would mean little or no means to look for a decent place to live. 

  These people will bear the troubles and discomfort of poor hygiene, unclean surroundings, no potable water, the lack of toilet facilities, the threat of dislocation and disease, among other things, as long as they live in the city. This has been life to them. Sadly, to most of them, they remain hopeful that their plight for a better life will bear fruit - some day. Indifference, lack of education, false hopes and crab mentality has been etched in their minds and indeed has borne fruit. 

  Officials stop short of saying that the problem rests on the city’s inability to provide alternatives to the increasing number of dislocated, unemployed and hungry families migrating to the city, hoping for better lives and expecting aid from government personalities and relief agencies. Why have they not imposed the law on squatting and clamped down on illegal structures immediately to save on costs for litigation, relocation and re-taking of the property? 

  Latest figures already point to some 300,000 squatters currently residing in the city. We expect this number to grow with migrants coming to Bacolod lured by the welcoming attitude of “The City’s” promise of better opportunities and improved quality of lives. 

  Is this the legacy we want to leave behind? 

  I definitely would not want my nephews, nieces and fellow Negrenses to live in a city where heavy rains would result to floods, loss of lives and property, stranded commuters, businesses closed, and a city at a standstill. I certainty would dread leaving behind a city where streets and river banks are filled with garbage, houses become breeding grounds for filth and disease, unemployed people living on dole outs and freebies, vagrants and street children begging on the streets, and minors and adults engaged in criminal activities and prostitution due to poverty. 

As I woke up this morning, I came to realize that Barrack Obama’s campaign of change doesn’t start nor end in America. His battle cry is very appropriate to every individual in this little part of the world. Change transcends color, race, nationality, political party, social class, and religion. I agree that we need leaders who can stand up, implement the laws, lead and initiate change. It takes a lot of political will and determination among our current leaders to improve the city and implement changes. They should stop all the bickerings, the blaming, or pointing to each other as sources of or contributors to the negative things that happen to our city. We too owe it to ourselves to do our part in making our piece of Bacolod a better place to live in.