ILOILO City – In a bid to make this year’s Dinagyang Festival garbage- and stink-free, the city government will be positioning 300 trash bins and 62 portable toilets in strategic areas.
The Dinagyang highlight – the crowd-drawing ati tribes competition – is on Sunday, Jan. 26.
The trash bins will actually be kaing – humungous bamboo baskets.
Some private companies also offered drums as garbage bins, said Engineer Neil Ravena, chief of the Solid Waste Management Division of the city government’s General Services Office (GSO).
Two GSO dump trucks and 100 personnel would be collecting garbage from the bins.
In last year’s Dinagyang, Ravena said, they were able to collect 72,000 kilograms of garbage and most of these were plastics.
GSO expects more this year, especially on Saturday, Jan. 25. The pioneering Dagyang sa Calle Real street dance activity which is open to all is expected to attract thousands of revellers, said Ravena.
But he expressed hope that revellers this year will heed Mayor Jerry Treñas’ call to make the Dinagyang trash-free.
The city government will be deploying personnel to catch garbage litterers, Ravena revealed.
Violators would be fined P500.
Regarding the portable toilets or portalets, 12 will be positioned at the Iloilo City Freedom Grandstand while 50 more would be placed in strategic areas downtown.
GSO personnel would be manning the portalets. Their task is to make sure the portalets are clean at all times. To remove unpleasant odor, they would be using bio-enzyme.
Ravena also made it clear that the use of the portalets is free.
During the 2019 Dinagyang, the city government made available 40 portalets and barangay councils also helped construct some but with pay./PN
