GenSan’s P362m Sanitary Landfill starts construction

Tomorrow, Friday, June 11, 2010, a ground-breaking ceremony for General Santos City’s P362 million SANITARY LANDFILL PROJECT will finally occur at its 63.3-hectare property in Barangay Sinawal!

The landfill project which is about 15 minutes from the city central was awarded to construction company R-II Builders and Philippine Ecology Systems Corporation Consortium. They have been contracted  under a design-build-operate scheme which means that they will “design, build and operate a solid waste management and disposal facility”.

Click on the map below of the GenSan Sanitary Landfill Project for a larger view.

The project is funded by a soft loan from the World Bank’s (WB’s) support for strategic Local Development and Investment Project, which is coursed through the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP).

City Mayor Pedro Acharon Jr. and now congressman-elect for the First District of South Cotabato, who wants the implementation of the project before the end of his final term on June 30, 2010 revealed that the whole thing includes a Materials Recovery Facility or MRF, Sanitary Landfill and Waste Disposal Management System, and other support facilities for the correct disposal of the city’s and neighboring towns’ solid wastes.

Project Coordinator Engineer Nael Cruspero, City Planning Department Head said that work starts with the concreting of the 4 1/2 kilometer road leading to the landfill at Purok Cabuay, in the rolling hills of Sinawal. Then the construction firm would assume the construction, operation and management up to May 2013. [quote1]

Part of the task is to train assigned city government personnel on every aspect of project’s operation and maintenance.

The city also intends to secure the consortium’s assistance in preparing a closure plan for the old and current municipal solid waste disposal site in Barangay Tambler and lead to its progressive rehabilitation , Cruspero added.

As far as we are concerned, this GENSAN is only the 3rd city in Mindanao which will be having its own SANITARY LANDFILL, next to Davao and Surigao Cities.  What makes this special is the fact that the Tuna Capital is the only one who will be running it together with the private sector is the DESIGN-BUILD-OPERATE scheme!

Bariles wonders how the critics of Congressman-elect Acharon would say now that this project will soon be available for the people of his beloved General Santos City under the able tutelage of his equally reliable and hard-working party-mate, Mayor-elect Darlene Custodio.

But one thing is sure, with Acharon’s assumption of his new post in congress, expect more infrastructure projects to come in our way leading us to say that, “THE BEST TIMES ARE SOON TO COME IN GENSAN!”