Rey
Anthony H. Chiu
TAGBILARAN CITY, May 5
(PIA) -- Bohol local government unit with governor Edgar Chatto recently handed
in P200,000 worth of cash reward to Balilihan town, Bohol's best town
implementer in garbage mangement 'best practices' with a 76.13 points.
Balilihan is one of
the towns that make a statement on their support to local
governments’ initiatives in implementing the Ecological Solid Waste Management
(ESWM) law.
Capitol through
Governor Edgar Chatto handed in some P450,000 worth of waste management
projects and P210,000 worth of cash reward to Bohol’s best town implementeers
in garbage management.
According to Bohol
Environment Management Office (BEMO)-ESWM coordinator Maria Socorro Trinidad,
the province's 46 towns and Tagbilaran City were assessed using the National
Solid Waste Management Commission for the 2013 calendar year.
Duero town with a
rating of 74.45 points was also awarded with P150,000 worth of project
which the town will soon identify and the 3rd plalcer was Cortes with 74.38
points which was given some P100,000 worth of projects.
The three towns with 7
other winners on the top ten list showed outstanding seriousness in
managing their solid waste, putting up sustainability mechanisms and even
generated funds from garbage collection to selling of recyclables, practiced
strict waste segregation at source to land them on the top list.
Those at the top ten
received at least P30,000 in cash which can be used to enhance all their
ecologiocal solid waste management programs. They are Jagna ((72.75),
Lila (71.83), Corella (69.50), Alburquerque (64.92), Baclayon (64.50),
Maribojoc (62.17) and Loon (56.83), data from the provincial ecological solid
waste management council evaluation team showed.
The evaluating
team composed of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources,
Interior and Local Government, Education, Provincial Planning and Development
Office, Health Office and the BEMO made evidence based document reviews
for town ESWM; made field visits to barangays and random inspection of
households to be able to come up with the ratings, explained Trinidad.
Evaluators said most
Bohol towns have already designated ESWM focal persons, had private sector
representatives in their local ESWM councils, conduct regular ESWM council
meetings or inserted ESWM issues in town council gatherings, put up local
budget allocations, adopted a decade long integrated solid waste management
plan including waste segregation and characterization at source, put up
temporary control dumps, collected garbage fees, and planned to put up sanitary
landfills in the most immediate future.
Even with the relative
successes in ESWM in Bohol the Provincial Ecological Solid Waste
Management Council (PESWM) still recommends continuous information, education
and communication to all communities especially on waste segregation, the
sustaining of the practice of reduce, reuse and recycle to minimize full
disposal which would not be viable for towns without sanitary landfills.
The council also
recommends training and deputation of ESWM enforcers to strengthen ESWM program
implementation and enforcement, production of other IEC materials like flyers,
brochures and other information collaterals. (mbcn/rahc/PIA7-Bohol)