Legazpi to receive P9.5-M Japan’s waste mgmt proj

By Cet Dematera

Legazpi City has been chosen by the Japanese government as recipient of its P9.5-million grant in order to put up facilities that would further improve the city’s waste management system.

Legazpi City health and safety officer Neil Careo said that Legazpi has been selected as grant recipient due the city’s very effective implementation of its solid waste management program (SWMP).

Careo said they are now in the fine-tuning of all the documentation to prepare for the City Plan of Action on Marine Litter (CPAML) as the major requirement in implementing the Japanese program dubbed Health Ocean and Clean Cities Initiative (HOCCI) facilitated by the United Nation Human Settlement Program (UN-Habitat) Philippines.

He explained that they will make a study regarding the marine littering reduction program to be submitted to the UN-habitat as one of the requirements to receive the P9.5 million grant from Japan.

Careo said out of the P9.5 million grant, P1 million will be used to improve the city’s waste management while the remaining P8.5million will be used to buy equipment for minimizing or preventing the marine waste materials through circular economy, adding that the City Environment and Natural Resources Office (CENRO) will also strengthen the application of reuse, reduce, recycle (3R) strategy.

“Also, the city government of Legazpi and the UN-habitat will sign an agreement of cooperation for the implementation of the HOCCI project”, Careo said.

UN-habitat is the United Nation agency for human settlements. It is mandated by the UN General Assembly to promote socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities.

He said the HOCCI project will focus on the reduction of marine waste materials particularly the single used plastic coming from households and other institutions that can clog the river channels and destroy the marine resources.

Ormoc City in the Visayas and Cagayan de Oro City in Mindanao are also recipients of the Japanese grant.