Philippines Landfill Opposed Due to Leachate Concerns

Bohol town residents oppose landfill project

By Kit Bagaipo, Visayas Bureau, Last updated 05:54pm (Mla time) 12/05/2007

TAGBILARAN CITY, Philippines -- Albuquerque town residents in the central Bohol province have asked the provincial government to stop a sanitary landfill project, saying it will pollute their water system.

About 100 residents led by Albuquerque Vice Mayor Cirilo Jalad and Councilor Teodulo Pinlac gathered at the town hall on Wednesday to protest the project.

They said an aquifer in the village of Dangay, where the project will be constructed, supplies the water requirement of four villages in Albuquerque.

The Albuquerque cluster sanitary landfill will host wastes from 13 nearby towns.

One of the major hazards of waste landfills would be leachate, the contaminated water generated from the garbage dumped on the landfills, Pinlac said.

Leachate is a potentially toxic fluid that could leak from a landfill site and pollute aquifers and surface water, according to the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire website.

Bohol Governor Erico Aumentado implemented the Albuquerque cluster sanitary landfill project early 2007 to comply with Republic Act 9003, the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2002. More here ...