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By Dave L. Llorito, Research Head
(Hazardous waste is a growing menace in the
country. But because there is no integrated handling and treatment
facility for disposing of toxic waste, the problem has not been
properly addressed. This last installment explains why investors are
reluctant to go into hazardous waste disposal.)
A weak regulatory system is turning off
investors interested in putting up an integrated treatment and
disposal facility for hazardous wastes (HW) in the Philippines.
Sources from the Environmental Management Bureau
of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources say that such
a facility would cost at least P2.6 billion.
Only the private sector could cough up that kind
of amount. Yet private investors would come in only if they are
assured they could make a profit. And that hinges on the effective
enforcement of and compliance with environmental laws and
regulations.
What the government wanted is an integrated HW
treatment facility that will dispose of HWs that cannot be recycled.
It would include components for neutralizing waste acid and alkali,
detoxification of toxic substances, thermal treatment of organic HWs,
and a landfill for heavy metals containing treated and inorganic HWs.
Recyclable HW will be sold to recyclers. Those
that need treatment will be brought to the facility. Some of the
treated HW, due to environmental reasons, may have to undergo
further chemical, thermal, or solidification treatment before being
brought to an acceptable landfill. The main idea is to prevent
possible damage to human health and the environment.
So far, nobody seems interested in building such
a facility.
Cezar E. Pacheco, chairman of the Air and Waste
Management Association-Philippine Section, says that poor compliance
with the Toxic Chemicals and Hazardous and Nuclear Wastes Control
Act of 1990 (Republic Act 6969) that mandates “cradle-to-grave”
management of hazardous wastes is holding back potential investors
in hazardous waste (HW) treatment and disposal facilities.
“How would an investor put his money into
these facilities knowing that he has to compete with rivers, creeks,
ravines, and secret dumpsites as disposal sites for hazardous
wastes?” says Pacheco, who is also an environmental engineer.
For the project to be economically viable, the
government would have to make sure the HW for treatment and final
disposal is delivered by generators to the treatment, storage, or
disposal (TSD) facility and pay for the services. And this could be
done if the laws and regulations on the proper HM management are
enforced.
RA 6969 provides the legal framework for toxic
and hazardous waste in the country. It calls for the regulation and
control of importation, manufacture, processing, distribution, use,
transport, treatment and disposal of toxic and hazardous substances.
Under the law, a tracking system must be in
place to provide receiving and shipping documentation as well as
certification of proper treatment, storage and disposal.
Transporting HW from the generator to a TSD
facility would require a permit from EMB and other requirements from
the DOTC. The transporters should carry a manifest duly signed by
the generator, the transporter or hauler, and the final recipient or
the operator of the TSD facility.
HW transporters are also required to display
warning signs regarding the shipments of HW and deliver the entire
volume of wastes as specified in the manifest. This is to ensure
that the movement of wastes are properly monitored and unaccounted
for and not dumped illegally.
In reality, the process is far from perfect
because of institutional weaknesses within the EMB, the main
implementer of the RA 6969. This assessment is contained in the
latest Japan International Cooperation Agency report, “The Study
of Hazardous Waste Management in the Philippines.”
The biggest problem is manpower. The EMB has 763
personnel scattered across the country. The central office itself is
understaffed, with only seven people, four of whom are technical
experts (either a chemist or chemical engineer).
“A crucial constraint in effectively
implementing RA 6969 … is the dire lack of qualified personnel
trained and experienced in HWM (hazardous waste management) work,”
says JICA. “The current staffing is a far cry from the optimal
staffing required by the mandated tasks and the size of the
regulated community.”
The EMB is also under-funded. “Since the
passage of RA 6969 in 1990 until 1999, the HWMS (hazardous waste
management sector) received no budget allocation of its own and was
merely subsidized by EMB’s budget for operations … It means that
no fund is available for purchasing field equipment, laboratory
space and instruments for HW sampling and analysis,” the report
notes.
The inadequacies show up in the EMB’s slapdash
work.
Effective monitoring of the generation,
transport, treatment, and final disposal of HW starts with a
reliable database of generators. Yet EMB’s database has barely
scratch the surface. It lists only 1,079 HW generators, when the
number of potential generators could easily reach 150,000. This
means that significant number of HW generators is not covered by the
regulatory system.
“Taking into context the magnitude of the job,
perhaps less than five percent of the potential HW generators are
captured by the regulatory system,” says JICA. This also means
reliable figures on the actual supply of HW for treatment and
disposal, which could become the basis for computing revenue flows
for a TSD facility, are not available.
Facilities of HW generators or operators of TSD
facilities applying for registration with DENR need to be inspected
to make sure the submitted data are verified. But only few
facilities are inspected each year.
“One technical constraint is HWM is the lack
of written protocol for inspection and monitoring of facilities …
Due to limited staffing and equipment, the inspections tend to be
mere ocular surveys and interview … HW sampling and analysis is
hardly done,” JICA says.
Because of EMB’s poor monitoring and
enforcement, many HWs are illegally disposed. This practice is
reportedly common among small and medium enterprises that cannot
afford treatment and are able to escape detection, JICA says.
This problem is aggravated by the existence of
unregistered transporters, who offer cut-throat rates and dump the
HW in open land or water or in municipal waste dumps,” says JICA.
“Severe impacts on the environment and public health are the
result, together with significant reductions in the volumes
available for recycling and treatment.”
Comments Pacheco: “The private sector would
only put this plant up if he is certain that hazardous waste
generators would bring the stuff to the plant for proper treatment
and disposal and get paid for the said services.”
Another dampener for private sector engagements
in HW management in the Philippines is the lack of financing.
The report notes that many financial
institutions in the Philippines promote “sustainable
development,” yet they view environmental projects as too risky.
Some government financial institutions have environmental credit
facilities, yet they are inflexible when it comes to smaller loans.
They are also not keen on lending money for environmental programs
and projects which to their assessment do not yield immediate
incomes.
Part 1
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