Land is Not Growing, Population is

Land is substantial to human. In fact, land will continue to exist even without human
intervention. With over 7 billion people depending on it, how will the international
community act upon the threat to its existence?
Humans produce a vast quantity of waste and for the record, waste are
accumulated since men started to take everything from the earth. With an
underlying awareness that electronic garbage and synthetic materials will take
hundreds of years to perish, dumping it back is the humans primitive resolution.
Landfills are established all over the world and its prevalent expansion paralleled
the increasing human utility. At the latest Atlas Waste report, there are 50
international landfills and all of it overflowed due to drastic increase of waste
production. This leads to industrialized countries to resolve to solid waste shipment
and Philippines is in the bottom line.
The country responded aggressively to the recent issue of Canadian rubbish being
sent to the Philippine northern landfills. Inconsistencies with the government
responses intensify the problem. The Canadian Embassy reports remarked the
consent of Philippine government to the unlawful shipment and agreed upon the
Canadian rubbish disposal in the country. Issues entailed that the consensus was
made by both parties in a condition where money is allegedly involved. Another
issue that made the public responds egregiously.
Contrary to the benefit of the Philippine-Canadian Agreement, in 2013 the Philippine
government spent P4.8 billion to get rid of the garbage generated in Metro Manila.
That P4.8 billion could have made schools, bridges and infrastructures that could be
more useful for the citizens. The lack of policies governing solid waste management
is tolerable for Filipinos but making the Philippines as an international landfill is an
exception.
The Philippines provided multiple laws that regulates landfills policies including the
Republic Act No. 9003 or the or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act an
act providing for an ecological solid waste management program, creating the
necessary institutional mechanisms an incentives declaring certain act prohibited
and providing penalties, appropriating funds and other purposes. The law takes into
consideration that Philippines is an agricultural country and pollution will widely
affect the agricultural sector due to land contamination.
Minimizing its
top producers
742 hectares.
million metric

scope, Nueva Ecija, the golden plain of Central Luzon, is one of the
of agricultural products in the country covering an area of about 298,
It is considered the main rice growing province producing up to 1.31
tons per year, thus, dubbed as Food bowl and Rice Granary of the

Philippines. With the provinces land elevation characterized as low lying alluvial
plains and rolling uplands associated with seasonal rainfalls and communal
irrigation systems, plus the naturally rich condition of its soil, Nueva Ecija is indeed
a perfect place for farming. But even the farmers paradise also has its share on
global fight against pollution.
Last year, the province has experience several great floodings due to typhoons with
some areas reportedly submerged including crop fields. Typhoons may have gone
but it leaves devastating trail that residents, especially farmers, will have to deal
with even up to now. The submerged rice fields which were about to be harvested in
a few days was flattened by mud and debris not only depriving farmers their
harvest but also their lands because some are not any more profitable due to mud
contaminations.
Other domestic issues flooding Nueva Ecijas ground are the garbage crisis. The city
government purchased a 7.8-hectare property in Macatbong for P1.4 million for the
P48-million Material Recovery Facility (MRF) which had been controversial because
Environmental Management Bureau Region 3 director Lormelyn Claudio reportedly
told a news publication that Mayor Julius Ceasar Vergaras Macatbong MRF is not the
solution to the city garbage problem. Earlier, Vergara filed a complaint with the
Office of the Ombudsman against Claudio and DENR Region 3 executive director
Regidor de Leon for refusing to grant an ECC for the proposed Macatbong MRF
which is the city governments solution for garbage disposal crisis since the Valle
Cruz is set to be closed that time.
Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) of the Department of Environment and
Natural Resources (DENR) asked the city government of Cabanatuan to rehabilitate
the 40-foot high open dumpsite instead which was strongly provoked by the
residents. The dumpsite is being compared to the former dump in Payatas, Quezon
City due to the huge volume of garbage causing not just strong stinky smell on its
neighbor barangays but also devastating soil contamination on the surrounding rice
fields.
The local government unit and the national government should work hand-in-hand
in addressing this problem. In a larger sense, waste reduction should be our
foremost concern and the issue regarding waste accumulation is the contrary to this
principle. The worlds resolution to this problem must be beneficial to the humanity
and not for the destruction of a developing country. Remember, the world is too far
from realization of discovering a new world and in a sense, we cannot live like fishes
on the water. Solid Waste Management should not be left as an idea but rather an
advocacy implemented within us. Land is not growing, population is.
JENNIFER S. ESTEBAN

REFERENCE:

http://pcij.org/stories/all-that-trash/