Solid Waste Management for Motibot’s Health Betterment!

Improper Solid Waste Management

 Community Health Problem #5  

            Waste management is defined as the activities and actions required to manage waste from its inception to its final disposal. This includes the collection, transport, treatment and disposal of waste, together with monitoring and regulation of the waste management process.Improper disposal of barangay solid waste can create unsanitary conditions, and these conditions in turn can lead to pollution of the environment and to outbreaks of vector-borne disease—that is, diseases spread by rodents and insects.

            Data gathered during the house-to-house survey shows that out of 508 households surveyed in barangay Motibot,72 (14.17%) householdsstill practice incineration of waste, only 460 (90.56%) households practice waste segregation, only 245 (48.23%) households practice composting, and only 26 (5.12%) households practice recycling. In line with this,incineration of waste productsproduces emissions that are detrimental to healthand are polluting the air as emphasized in Republic Act No. 8749 otherwise known as the Philippine Clean Air Act. Waste segregation, on the other hand, promotes reduction of waste that reaches landfills and occupies space. Air and water pollution rates are considerably reduced thus will make it easier to apply different processes – composting, recycling and incineration can be applied to different kinds of waste. Lastly, in terms of composting and recycling, if we exploited every available opportunity to recycle the plastic, metal, glass, rubber and other non-organic waste that gets discarded, and if we composted as much of our excess organic matter as we conceivably could anduse them to enrich soil in sustainable agriculture systems, we could cut our garbage production dramatically.

            Together with the keypersons of barangay Motibot, headed by the barangay captain Hon. Evangeline Murro, the group was able to come up with strategies to improve the overall solid waste practices of the community. The first strategy is to increase community knowledge on solid waste management through education and information disseminationby conducting lecturesand placement of materials in key locations in the barangay. Next strategy is to establish a tailor fitted SWM scheme for the barangay so as to increase the number of households practicing proper waste segregation, composting and recycling via construction of a barangay Small-Scale Vermicomposting Facility, launching of the “Shoot-that-Bottle Campaign”, and creation of the Lantern-and-Christmas-Tree-making contest made of recyclable materials. All of these activities aregeared towards the primary goal ofincreasing the number of households practicing solid waste management in Barangay Motibot, Sindangan, Zamboanga Del Norte by year 2022.


IZRA JENINE ATILANO
ADZU-SOM