Mayor Ondo mulls septage treatment plant for Ormoc

MAYOR Edward “Ondo” Codilla, upon the recommendation of the City Health Office’s (CHO) Environmental Health Section, is looking at developing a septage treatment plant for proper disposal of human waste. In her project presentation to Mayor Edward C. Codilla, sanitation inspector Emilyn R. Icalina cited the unsafe waste disposal being practiced by siphoning firms.

Icalina explained that an average household of five members has a septic tank measuring 1.5 cu.m. which will have to be desludged when it is filled up within four to five years. Most of the complaints of foul odor in neighborhoods that they respond to are caused either by the existence of pigpens or by leaking septic tanks that have been filled to capacity.

Such a problem has become common especially that Ormoc’s population now stands at 208,493 and the number of households has reached 47,858. This doesn’t include the large establishments that have faster and larger accumulation in their septic tanks especially hotels and the 617 food outlets in the city.

While there are siphoning firms that conduct desludging services, the problem lies in the disposal of sludge drawn from the septic tanks. Icalina admits they are unaware where the siphoning firms dump their wastes considering they usually operate at night.

Worse, these firms come from other places like Tacloban City; Hilongos, Leyte, and even as far as Davao and Surigao Cities in Mindanao. This means that the siphoning services don’t have permits to operate in Ormoc and their activities are unregulated by the LGU.

“We tried contacting these people to persuade them to inform us if they have an operation and to show us where they dispose their wastes,” Icalina said. One time they were able to communicate with a siphoning firm when it was hired by a prominent fastfood restaurant.

The firm informed they will dump the waste in Isabel town, 47 kms. away. But this was dismissed later on as untrue when CHO learned that the desludger truck went back and forth 17 times to the restaurant overnight. It would be impossible to transport the waste to Isabel considering the distance. The establishment paid P56,000 for the service.

Without any information where the disludgers dispose the wastes, CHO could only surmise that these are dumped into the city’s rivers and open areas. This assumption could be true based on the deteriorating quality of Ormoc Bay and the city’s surface waters.

The Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) monitors Ormoc Bay’s water quality on a monthly basis. The samplings from EMB’s tests last June revealed a fecal coliform concentration of 23,000 most probable number per 100 milliliters from the beach water of Brgy. Bantigue and 13,000MPN/100mL from the water of Li-loan beach in Brgy. Danhug. The readings are way above the 200MPN/100mL standard set by the Environment Department.

Last April, 181 residents of Milagro, Dayhagan and Juaton fell ill of amoebiasis and diarrhea. Sanitary inspectors of Ormoc Waterworks and Sewerage Administration conducted bacteriological tests on four water sources in the aforementioned barangays. All sources tested positive of coliform and one with E-coli.

CHO fears the indiscriminate disposal of sludge may have contaminated Ormoc’s groundwater and cited the urgency of putting up a septage treatment plant. City Architect Maribeth Ebcas said they have identified a site for the proposed facility at the ecological waste center in Brgy. Green Valley where the sanitary landfill is located.

Mayor Codilla ordered the creation of a technical working group consisting of members from the CHO, Environment and Natural Resources Division, City Planning and Development Office, and City Engineering Office to implement the project.