Planned San Mateo landfill is in a watershed area - group

MANILA, Philippines - The proposed landfill in San Mateo, Rizal will be located inside a watershed area, an environmental group warned Monday. The warning was aired by Clemente Bautista Jr., the national coordinator of the Kalikasan People's Network for the Environment (Kalikasan-PNE), in a press statement. In it, he added that putting up such facility in the area will endanger the health of San Mateo residents and Metro Manila water consumers. "This will jeopardize not only the health of immediate communities, but also the health of millions of residents of Metro Manila who get their water supply from the watershed,"Bautista said. The statement came after it was learned that the construction of a new dumpsite started last month in San Mateo. Under the plan, a sanitary landfill will be put up in Barangays Maly and Guinayang. Initially, Kalikasan said, the landfill was to cover a 19-hectare area but it is expected to expand to 200 hectares. The group added that the site has been identified as part of a watershed reservation. "Such facility in the area, once operational, will produce large amounts of leachate that will seep through the ground, thereby polluting the soil, groundwater, and nearby rivers, the group warned. Also, Kalikasan said that the 200-hectare area to be covered by the new dumpsite is part of a 473-hectare area designated as Protected Forest Area by the Land Use Plan of San Mateo. To bolster its argument, Kalikasan also cited a study by University of the Philippines National Institute of Geological Sciences (UP-NIGS). The study concludes the San Mateo area as environmentally critical in nature, having slopes above 50 degrees that render it prone to landslides, flashfloods, erosion, massive soil wasting and other natural hazards. "Removal of forest cover in the area to give way to the dumpsite will not only endanger lives of people in the communities, but will also destroy their sources of livelihood,"Kalikasan said, citiing the report. Several dumpsites have operated in the Rizal province in the past, including the recently closed landfill in Rodriguez. Protests planned On Monday, Kalikasan said that several groups have been formed to oppose the new dumpsite. One was named the Coalition of Garbage-Free San Mateo. Kalikasan said that it was formed by concerned groups and individuals, along with the people of San Mateo and has already prepared a petition to stop the construction of the dumpsite. The coalition claims that the Maly-Guinayang landfill project lacks an Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC) from DENR thus making it illegal. The group said that construction on the site was started after the contracted used an ECC obtained earlier for a different landfill project in Barangay Pintong Bukawe, San Mateo. That site had been ordered closed by the Supreme Court in 2005. To further publicize the issue and unite the people of San Mateo in opposing the illegal and hazardous dumpsite, the coalition has planned activities aimed at gathering more support. On January 17 different cycling clubs in and outside San Mateo will stage a "Ride for a Cause." The bikers will converge in the Church of San Mateo wherein a mass and a program will be held. Also, the coalition plans to file a resolution in Congress, seeing it as avenue to put the project in a halt.- PR/GMANews.TV