The City of Cauayan is the newest of the three cities in the Cagayan Valley region; it was declared a city only in 2001. The city’s strategic location—at the center of Isabela province and the entire region as well—has facilitated Cauayan’s steady economic growth. As trade and commerce boom, so does the population (due to migration), and with it comes the problem of increasing waste generation. A seven-day waste assessment jointly conducted by the city and the Philippine Environmental Governance (EcoGov) Project—funded by USAID and implemented with DENR and other partners—revealed that the city is generating close to 27 tons of solid wastes daily, mostly coming from the public market and Cauayan’s 13 urban barangays. The city has 65 barangays.

There were earlier efforts to educate the people on the ill-effects of unmanaged wastes, but public response to adopting waste reduction and segregation practices was at best “lukewarm.” The public’s indifference towards proper waste disposal stems from their perception that waste management is purely a government responsibility—though they are part of the problem, the residents did not see themselves as being part of the solution. This kind of attitude led to indiscriminate disposal of solid wastes—from throwing them into drainage and creeks, to just leaving them on the streets, to burning the garbage at their backyard—posing grave threat to the city’s residents and their environment.

With rapid developments taking place, city officials thought the problem could only get worse if nothing would be done soon. The enactment of the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act (RA 9003), which mandates local governments to properly manage their wastes; and practice segregation, recycling and composting to divert at least 25 percent of their waste by year 2006, became an added challenge to the city.

Making waste management everybody’s concern

Driven by this growing concern, the City government of Cauayan, headed by City Mayor Caesar G. Dy, pushed for the enactment of the City Environment Code and included solid waste management (SWM) as one of the city’s top 10 investment priorities. With technical assistance from EcoGov, the city developed its 10-year Solid Waste Management Plan, now undergoing review by the City Development Council and the Sangguniang Panlungsod. It is expected to be approved before the year ends.

Even if the plan is yet to be approved, the city is wasting no time in implementing a string of activities. Wanting to impress upon its people that waste management is everyone’s concern, Cauayan conducted intensive information and education campaign in the public market, households—especially in the 13 urban barangays—and schools to encourage people to reduce, reuse and recycle.

Taking advantage of the Filipinos’ competitive spirit, the city launched the annual Inter-Barangay Linis Bayan contest and inter-school contest on Ecological Solid Waste Management for public and private schools. The law recommends that Material Recovery Facilities (MRFs) be set up in each barangay; Cauayan, however, took a step further and built low-cost MRFs at the purok level (though the barangay is the smallest political unit in the Philippines, it is further divided into several purok or sitio. A purok or sitio leader is appointed by the barangay captain, who is elected by the barangay residents), in addition to establishing composting pits. Schools were likewise required to practice waste segregation. In addition, the city government has enlisted the support of the business sector, including the junk shop operators, which were organized into an association. Its president sits as member of the city SWM Board.

To date, the city has already invested about P6.5 million for construction of a central composting facility, purchase of equipment and other SWM activities.

An SWM model

At present, a total of 65 MRFs have been established in Cauayan’s 13 urban barangays.

Responding to the mayor’s appeal, the Rotary Club of Cauayan, Rural Bank of Cauayan, the Iglesia ni Cristo, Cyclone Airways and the Philippine Air Force based in Cauayan City donated garbage cans for the city’s SWM program. They also participate in clean-up drives and in urban re-greening activities, such as tree planting. The city’s composting facility is now processing each day close to 700 kilos of biodegradable waste coming from the public market and the 13 urban barangays.

Based on available data, the City of Cauayan is now diverting 18 percent of its solid wastes generated within the public market and the business establishments, just a few percentage points shy of the law’s minimum 25 percent requirement. To meet this goal, the city has allocated an additional P1.2 million for 2006 to further upgrade its disposal site and expand its SWM program to cover the rest of the barangays.

Because of its SWM initiatives, Cauayan has become a model for the “cleanest and greenest city” in the region. Last January, Cauayan was one of the 26 LGUs cited by the National Solid Waste Management Commission (NSWMC) for having converted their dumpsites into controlled disposal facilities. Recently, Cauayan City ranked first among the 48 local governments recognized by the NSWMC to be complying with RA 9003.

“SWM programs can succeed and be sustained if every sector would get involved in their implementation,” says Mayor Dy. “We are glad that in Cauayan, our partners recognize their responsibility and are actively playing their role.”

With reports from:
Evelyn Sagun, Northern Luzon UEM Specialist; and
Cheng Solomon, Northern Luzon UEM Assisting Professional

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