Manado, Ekuatorial – Head of Manado department of sanitation and urban landscaping said on Tuesday (3/2) that the city’s waste volume has been increasing for the past four years resulted from growing population.
“In 2014, it [the volume] had already passed 980,865 cubic meters and [we] predicted that it will continue to increase this year,” said Julises Oehlers to Ekuatorial. Based on the data, the volume reached 828,812 cubic meters in 2011 and continued to increase to 840,960 cubic meters and 940,703 cubic meters in 2012 and 2012, respectively.
Oehlers said household and industrial wastes dominated the waste composition due to increase population. “One of the reason is that population increases then waste increases,” he said. “The population was 437,066 people in 2011 then it raised up to 536,931 people in 2013. By 2014, we already have 600,000 people.”
Unfortunately, increasing population and waste volume did not mean better waste management as the city’s landfill located in Sumompo village of Tuminting district could not hold the amount of the waste produced daily.
“The [Sumompo] landfill covers only 74,593 square meters and can not contain all the volume. It has exceeded its capacity and as a result waste begins to spread to housing areas,” said Oehlers.
Meanwhile, Ruddy Kodoati, head of sanitation unit, said that they had tried to reduce the volume through sorting organic and non-organic waste and provide waste shredder.
“There are 11 units of garbage shredders in 2014 which would be enough to help in controlling the waste. However, the most important thing is how to reduce waste from households by sorting ,” said Kodoati. Yoseph Ikanubun