DAVAO CITY — The $1-billion waste-to-energy project of a German investor planned for Davao City is currently being reviewed by the local government, which has hesitated on the venture due to concerns over dumping.
“If they will buy waste from nearby cities, I will not allow it. I don’t want Davao City to be turned into a garbage dump,” Vice-Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte said in his weekly television program aired on Sunday, referring to project proponent Herhof GmbH.
The firm is looking to build a “stabilat” technology plant capable of generating 12 megawatts (MW) of electricity. The facility needs 500 to 1,000 metric tons of garbage to be financially feasible but the city reportedly produces only 359 tons of garbage daily under strict segregation campaigns.
Herhof had thus said it would purchase barges to transport garbage from nearby areas for delivery to the facility proposed to be built near the sanitary landfill in Tugbok District, at least an hour’s drive from this city’s central business district.
The project has so far been endorsed by the Solid Waste Management Board and members of the city council’s committee on environment.
The resolution to authorize Mayor Sara Z. Duterte-Carpio to enter into a memorandum of agreement with the German firm is currently being discussed in the city council.
Joseph Dominic S. Felizarta, chief of the City Environment and Natural Resources Office, said the city government is not keen on stopping its “no collection, no segregation” policy just to accommodate Herhof’s stabilat plant.
Instead, he said there are agricultural waste in far-flung areas that can be collected to fulfill the requirements of Herhof.
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By: JBE
Source: Business World, Sept. 27, 2011
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