DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 03 October) – A waste-to-energy (WTE) project can only generate an “unclean” power source with adverse impact on human health and the environment, the Davao City-based Interfacing Development Interventions for Sustainability, Inc. (IDIS) said on Monday.
Atty. Mark Peñalver, IDIS executive director, told reporters during the “Kapehan sa Dabaw” that building a WTE incineration facility “will not provide any solution to the existing solid waste management woes of this city.”
He said the WTE could be a major contributor of carbon emission, which can worsen climate crisis.
Peñalver said that some local politicians pushing for the WTE project want to put up such facility “not only to address the solid waste problem but also to increase power generation in this city.”
“In reality, what they are after is energy generation and we don’t want our energy to be “unclean.” In effect, we will contribute to carbon emissions. WTE can cause our carbon emissions and carbon footprint to shoot up. Apart from that, this is not really the sustainable solution. We are just creating another problem,” he added.
Mayor Sebastian Duterte earlier pushed the establishment of a WTE facility in the city during a meeting with Environment Secretary Ma. Antonia “Toni” Yulo-Gonzaga in Manila
In August, Duterte thanked the City Council for passing a resolution urging President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. to provide counterpart fund worth P3.486-billion for the WTE project here.
The resolution, authored by 1st District Councilor Tek Ocampo, said the country should seize the opportunities offered by the Japanese government to avail of technical and financial assistance to develop sustainable ways of managing solid wastes.
Ocampo, chair of the committee on environment, said the Japanese government expressed the intention in 2018 to donate 5.013-billion yen, or equivalent to P2.052 billion, to partially fund the project of the WTE facility here.
According to data from the City Environment and Natural Resources, some 600 to 800 tons of wastes are generated daily in the locality.
Peñalver believed that a WTE project “would only encourage people to generate more wastes to keep the facility running.”
“The emissions from a WTE facility are carcinogenic – dioxins and furans. These can put the lives of people in danger. (They are also dangerous to the) environment,” he said.
In a statement on September 19, Peñalver said a study conducted by Dr. Jorge Emmanuel, a professor of environmental science and engineering at the Silliman University in Negros Oriental, found that WTE incinerators release large amounts of highly toxic substances called dioxins and furans into the air.
Emmanuel was former chief technical adviser on global environment projects of the United Nations Development Program.
The group added that inhalation of dioxins and furans causes an “increased risk of tumors, cancer, asthma and other fatal diseases.”
“If we want to push for a sustainable Davao City, then our policy makers, our decision makers should think twice in investing in dirty energies and dirty solutions like a WTE incineration project,” Peñalver said. (Antonio L. Colina IV / MindaNews)
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