ILOILO City – How do you solve a problem like the piling garbage at the city’s dumpsite in Barangay Calajunan, Mandurriao district?
Mayor Jerry Treñas is planning a waste-to-energy project through the public-private partnership (PPP) scheme.
Treñas, who had an initial meeting with the national government’s PPP Center prior to his inauguration, said he was told the agency was helping the cities of Quezon and Marikina realize waste-to-energy projects and he thought Iloilo City could have one, too.
The city mayor said he also consulted the Department of Environment and Natural Resources about this technology.
“The PPP Center will capacitate our people so we can start the program,” said Treñas.
The PPP scheme is a contractual agreement between the government and a private firm targeted towards financing, designing, implementing, and operating infrastructure facilities and services traditionally provided by the public sector.
The plan to convert solid waste at the city’s Calajunan dumpsite is not new. In fact, in 2014 the city government then under Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog signed a memorandum of agreement with South Korean firm Dream Engineering Company Ltd. for the establishment of a waste-to-energy project at the city’s waste disposal facility.
The Sangguniang Panlungsod authorized Mabilog to enter into the agreement via Resolution No. 2014-163.
“This joint venture agreement will be
beneficial for us especially in helping solve the garbage problem and
augmenting the power supply in the city,” Mabilog said during the agreement
signing in February 2014.
What happened to that agreement was unclear as of this writing. It was
previously reported that the contract for the solid waste-to-energy plant was
for 20 years and renewable.
The city was then collecting around 300 metric tons of garbage daily from six public markets, residential subdivisions, downtown business areas, shopping malls, and streets; 250 metric tons of it was targeted for the Mabilog initiative.
Under the agreement, over six megawatts was expected to be generated: one megawatt would be used to light up the industrial complex while five megawatts would be sold to the city’s power distributor under a power purchase agreement./PN
Waste to energy is beneficial to Iloilo City. More push mayor Trenas this must be realize in three years term. It will help Iloilo in many ways additional energy to power communities and businesses. Perhaps it can lower our rate per kwh.
Waste to energy technology is contrary to sustainable environmental management system . . . unless the waste goes through removal of constituent parts. The volatile synthetic gas should be removed first and converted into energy . . . while the remaining solid component is composted and used in food production. The level of organic matter in the soils of Iloilo farms is so low at this point that applying commercial fertilizer is like fertilizing the clouds . . . as there is not enough organics to hold on to the nutrients.
Direct burning of waste is wasteful and illegal . . . as there is a provision in the solid waste management law prohibiting burning of garbage.