Baguio City officials are racing against time to avert heavy environmental fines and a potential shutdown order after the city’s aging Sewage Treatment Plant repeatedly failed to meet national wastewater safety standards.
During a City Council meeting, officials disclosed that the city’s wastewater infrastructure is on the brink of collapse with the Environmental Management Bureau recently issuing a Notice of Violation after water testing revealed that the treatment facility was failing to filter out phosphorus, heavy oil, and kitchen grease.
The EMB warned that another failed test this month could trigger a total shutdown, or an issuance of a cease and desist order (CDO) of the facility.
“If a CDO is served, we have no choice but to implement it,” said Lowell Barton Jr., a regional legal officer for the Environmental Management Bureau. “Not only will households be affected, but it will have a domino effect. Our city will smell, and it will destroy our image as a tourist attraction.”
The EMB official admitted the facility is incapable of meeting modern water quality guidelines due to outdated technology and severe overloading.
Compounding the issue are cracked and collapsing underground pipes beneath city streets that allow raw sewage to leak into public areas before it can even reach the plant.
“Our sewerage system has a design capacity of 8,600 cubic meters per day, but the actual wastewater entering the facility is only around 6,000 cubic meters per day because our sewer lines are leaking,” said Rhenan Diwas, head of the City Environment and Parks Management Office. “That is why it overflows in various areas and causes a foul odor at the public market, because those sewer lines are broken.”
To temporarily mitigate the problem, the local government is seeking to purchase emergency submersible pumps valued at worth at least P400,000 each to keep heavy sludge moving through the system, although the equipment will only remain operational for about three months due to the harsh conditions.
“It is a waste of money if we spend over P400,000 for submersible pumps that will only last three months,” Diwas said. “That is why we are trying to find a better way, because what we are doing right now are just band-aid solutions.”
The City Council is looking to fast track funding the full rehabilitation of the sewage plant amounting to P1.2 billion and the crafting of a new Sanitation Fee Ordinance.
The proposed measure will restructure local utility fees by shifting away from a flat rate based on household toilet counts, opting instead to charge consumers based on their actual monthly water consumption.
The ordinance divides water users into four separate categories to ensure equitable distribution of the costs.
Residential homes connected to both the city water district and the sewer lines, classified as Category A, will pay an additional fee equivalent to 16 percent of their monthly water bill while Category C homes, which utilize private deep wells but connect to the city’s sewer lines, will pay a flat monthly rate of P115 pesos and commercial businesses to be charged between P590 and P885 based on their operational size.
Prior to the approval of the proposed new sanitation ordinance, The City Council said it will conduct several barangay consultations. Clariz Hidalgo/UC Intern
