For years, the transfer station at the South Road Properties (SRP) has been a literal stain on the image of Cebu City. The dirty scenery and the strong stench of accumulated garbage at Pond A have posed health risks to residents of Barangay Basak San Nicolas and threatened the economic success of the city's primary business hub.
City Government's Proposed Solution
The City Government's proposed "no-touch ground policy"—supported by a P204 million hauling contract—is a good plan to address this waste crisis quickly. Under this system, small trucks from barangays and the Department of Public Services (DPS) will directly dump their garbage via a ramp into larger, taller trucks, which will then haul the tons of waste to the landfill in Aloguinsan town.
This system eliminates the need for garbage to be stockpiled, accumulated, decomposed, or scattered at the SRP. However, this ramp system only alleviates the symptoms of the SRP transfer station problem and does not address the root cause: the long distance to the landfill.
Financial Sustainability Concerns
The city will allocate P400 million from its supplemental budget for transportation and other expenses related to this system. But how long can the city sustain this costly approach? While the initiative is commendable for quickly addressing the SRP waste problem, city officials must also focus on making urgent steps to permanently resolve the waste crisis.
Long-Term Solution: Binaliw Landfill
The reopening of the Prime Integrated Waste Solutions (PWS) landfill in Barangay Binaliw is one fundamental solution to the city's waste problem. The Binaliw landfill offers closer distance and lower costs, but its operations remain suspended due to environmental violations.
DPS Head Paul Gelasque rightly insists that Binaliw must comply with all requirements of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR-7) before operations resume. This is necessary to avoid a repeat of the tragedy on January 8, 2026, when the garbage mountain in Binaliw collapsed, claiming several lives.
Is it so difficult to comply with Gelasque's insistence? As of now, the Binaliw landfill has not yet resumed operations, highlighting the need for strict environmental compliance to prevent future disasters.
