Environment office avers that officials should know, enforce sanitation laws

By Susan C. Aro

Sunday 27th of May 2012

BAGUIO CITY, May 27 (PIA) - - The City Environment and Parks Management Office (CEPMO) stressed the need for officials to know the laws on sanitation, environment, building code and other laws related to the enforcement of health and sanitation to address the problem of sanitation especially along the Balili River.

The environment office found out that about half of the population of the city are located within the Balili Watershed area, generating the most wastes.

As population grows, the more the economic activities, the more solid and other wastes generated, according to Engr. Vicky Ferrer of CEPMO in a lecture held recently for barangay officials of La Trinidad and the city.

People, she explained, want to locate in the Balili watershed due to the presence of amenities. They want to converge in such a small area and this is where the trouble starts, Ferrer pointed out that most of the city’s utilities are spread thin.

Architect Daniel Burnham designed the city for 25,000 people only b ut the population has mushroomed.

In 2010, the city had a population of 318,676. This can even reach to a million during peak seasons like Panagbenga or Flower Festival and even during cold seasons due to tourists arrivals, said Ferrer. The city is likewise tagged as the prime education center of the north thus the high student population.

“You could just imagine how much wastes are generated and thrown in inappropriate areas,” she added. As the city is located in the mountains, wastes thrown anywhere will find their way down to the river, Ferrer said.

For those without septic tank and are illegally connected, wastes find their way to the river, Ferrer pointed out.

The city has its sewage treatment plant (STP) located at Sanitary Camp but only 65 barangays of the 129 are connected, she said. The STP clogs due to a surfeit of wastes.(SCA-PIA CAR, Baguio)