Dumaguete is known as a University Town primarily due to the presence of four universities and other institutions of higher learning. Thus, Dumaguete is a venue where knowledge is generated, shared, and applied. The City is also a point of convergence of people coming from different places, with diverse cultural backgrounds, and different linguistic abilities.
With such distinction, Dumaguete has served as a melting pot of ideas, opinions, and sentiments that are processed, in the course of debates, discourse, and forums, into norms and standards that form part of the society’s way of life, making our community more civil and social.
So you can see how Dumaguete is among the leaders when it comes to the crafting of regulations and ordinances on peace and order, business, morality, public governance, and yes, ordinances on environmental protection, conservation, and preservation.
The City’s environmental advocacies have earned it a national award on sound environmental management because of the construction of the septage treatment facility in Camanjac.
One of our prominent environmental ordinances is Ordinance115, titled “An Ordinance Establishing an Integrated Solid Waste Management System in the City Dumaguete”. Obviously, it is patterned from RA 9003, or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000.
Passed in 1998, Ordinance 115 was perceived to be the answer to the mounting problems on irresponsible disposal of wastes. With its pertinent provisions that require segregation of solid wastes into specific categories and their proper disposal, littering and related problems on clogged drainage would be addressed.
Another relevant provision of Ordinance 115 is the prohibition of open burning by the residents (Sec. 13, paragraph 13.1d). Obviously, this provision is aimed at addressing air pollution.
It is now 2013, or 15 years after the passage of Ordinance 115. An ordinary day walk along the streets in the City or a stroll at night would tell even the most ordinary and sometimes unmindful City resident that the implementation of Ordinance 115 leaves much to be desired.
A casual peep at the manhole of a drainage canal will immediately reveal the presence of a mixture of solid wastes (plastics, papers, leaves, twigs, etc.). Streets are also littered with uncollected household trash, oftentimes, made messy, thanks to stray dogs.
Worsening the already- deplorable environmental condition is the presence of smoke, made more visible when one is on the rooftop of a two-storey building. The smoke obviously comes from the neighborhood where irresponsible residents burn every trash in the vicinity daily, usually starting at 4 in the afternoon. The smoke from this trash-burning becomes more visible at night when one strolls around the City; the air looks “foggy”.
Noting the worsening environmental pollution in the City, one can only imagine its hostile impact on the lives of the people living here.
The deteriorating air and water quality in this part of the Philippines has obviously taken a setback on every Dumagueteño’s quest for quality of life. It is beyond doubt that polluted air and water bear down on the health of every Dumaguete resident, limiting his/her ability to enjoy life to the fullest.
Indeed, this is how deplorable environmental pollution is in the Dumaguete.
Engr. Marlon Tanilon
Dean, Student Life
Foundation University
