The Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) said that it will monitor the implementation of the solid waste management plans of local government units (LGUs) in compliance with Republic Act (RA) 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000.
“Solid waste management remains the top priority of the DENR. Amidst the ongoing pandemic, we will be vigorously overseeing the solid waste management compliance of LGUs, leveraging on our people and technology,” said DENR Secretary Roy A. Cimatu.
“Our work goes beyond approving the 10-year solid waste management plans of LGUs. We aim to see the effective enforcement of these plans and ultimately ensure a clean and healthy environment,” DENR Undersecretary for Solid Waste Management and LGUs Concerns Benny D. Antiporda added.
On the other hand, DENR-EMB Director William P. Cuñado during the virtual 3Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) webinar on January 14 bared that the EMB will closely monitor the various solid waste management strategies of the LGUs committed in their 10-year solid waste management plans.
“We will strictly monitor the commitments of the LGUs with the primary emphasis on their waste avoidance, waste recovery, composting and recycling as well as the management of the COVID-19 related wastes, their proper treatment and proper disposal in the sanitary landfills,” said Cuñado.
The submission of a 10-year solid waste management plan is a mandate given to LGUs by virtue of RA 9003 for the efficient management of solid wastes and the reuse, recycle and compost of wastes generated by cities and municipalities nationwide.
A total of 1,171 solid waste management plans have been approved as of December 7, 2021 and are now being implemented.
Presently, SWM plans of the LGUs are being monitored by EMB regional offices.
Cuñado bared that the EMB will improve its Integrated Information System or IIS where real-time reporting of data, statistics, and inspection reports will be uploaded in the system for faster actions.
“We will create accounts for the local government units to register in the EMB System. Eventually, if there are some mismanagements, a letter of advice will be sent to the concerned LGU to comply,” he said.
He added: “We will strictly monitor the environmental compliance of the 245 operational sanitary landfills servicing 478 LGUs in the country and we will implement programs to help expand the number of sanitary landfills where our LGUs can properly dispose their wastes in a healthy and environmentally-sound manner.”
RA 9003 prohibits open dump sites and instead requires sanitary landfills as the final disposal site for solid and residual wastes of a municipality or city or a cluster of municipalities or cities.
The EMB Director said that the EMB has engaged some Environmental Monitoring and Enforcement Officers to design sanitary landfills for LGUs and are engaging about five structure designs for every region to help LGUs who are interested to put up a sanitary landfill.
He said that this is a big cost reduction for LGUs as structure designing of sanitary landfills from other providers cost millions.
Cuñado also said that EMB will also monitor 335 closed dumpsites to ensure that the LGUs comply with the proper rehabilitation activities to avoid negative impacts on the environment. ###
