To The Editor:
This is in reaction to the news item in last Sunday’s issue entitled El Nino over; rains expected. {{more}}
Preparedness for the rain by fixing and dredging the canals and appeal to residents not to use these canals as garbage dumps is certainly a good move. But is this move enough? We hope that the next administration realizes that the intensity of the last 2 big floods when the river banks overflowed also brought down a lot of garbage first of all from the city’s problematic dumpsite as well as the informal dumps that are strewn all over the city in most of the barangays. There is a lot of uncollected garbage around mainly because many people mostly in depressed areas aren’t bothering. During big floods these garbage will also find their way into the canals and clog them up.
We all have work ahead of us esp. in the barangay level. A strengthened Environmental and Natural Resources Office (ENRO), a decent budget for programs to reach out to the people, in short a Comprehensive Plan on Solid Waste Management. City Hall should also ask itself how segregation of garbage works in their own turf.
There can be an economic boom, the city can be attracting dozens of new businesses, more shiny cars can be seen but as long as our waste management is way below par, quality of life in this city drops.
Esther Windler
Friends of the Environment, Negros Or. (FENOr)
