kaban galing - front cover - galing pook

26 LINAMON, LANAO DEL NORTE
Rule of Law Saves a Town
BALAK (Basura Atras, Linamon Abante sa Kalamboan)
Integrated Solid Waste Management (ISWM) Program
A DIRTY and smelly municipality. A garbage dump. That is how people
described the municipality of Linamon, Lanao del Norte. Then, in 2001,
a locally-initiated solid waste management program was seriously
begun. It was dubbed “Basura Atras, Linamon Abante sa Kalamboan”
or BALAK. Turning garbage into gold became the goal of the local
government.
Drowning in Garbage
Back then, the indiscriminate dumping of garbage in canals and vacant
lots was the rule rather than the exception. Garbage collection was
disorganized and unsystematic. No one seemed to be in charge. The
open dump site was only half a hectare of land, which was inappropriately
located adjacent to the public high school. This exposed the 500 school
children and school staff to air pollution and other health hazards.
While sanitation ordinances existed, the violators and offenders were
indifferent because of infrequent and inconsistent enforcement of fines
and penalties. For instance, the sidewalk vendors, peddlers as well as
public market stallholders dumped their garbage in the streets and
canals. Traffic congestion around the public market made garbage
collection difficult.
Pollution was so grave that it was also causing coastal resource
degradation. Unsanitary disposal of human and household waste in the
beaches and coastal waters were causing the depletion of mangroves
in the coastal barangays. The washout of uncollected garbage into the
rivers and coastal zones also led to a decline in productivity of the
municipal waters. This, of course, also affected tourism; the 14 public
and private beach resorts reported declining tourist arrivals.
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