Social acceptability remains the biggest problem for the realization of Baguio sanitary landfill

BAGUIO CITY, July 29 (PNA) - City vice mayor Daniel Farinas Thursday admitted the prolonged implementation of an engineered sanitary landfill (ESL) for the city is mainly due to social acceptability of the project.

The ESL was badly needed by Baguio since five years ago when it started bringing the tons of solid wastes to Tarlac entailing transportation costs which already ran to some millions of pesos.

Social acceptability is the consent or consensus of the surrounding communities within the site of an ESL pending the actual implementation of the project.

Farinas said there was already a probable site for the project at the Mount Santo Tomas area but surrounding communities remain skeptic to ESL due to fear of slippage and other polluting effects of the facility.

He said however that experts including those from the United Nations (UN) had assured that with proper engineering, pollution from ESL is nil.

The vice mayor also said there was already an alternate ESL site in Sablan, Benguet "but we cannot move unless we can have the final results of consultations and arrangements with the priority area at Mount Santo Tomas." (PNA)