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Sunday, September 29, 2024 Vol. 19 No. 348
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BAGUIO CITY, a vibrant urban center and the country’s first UNESCO Creative City, attracts thousands of visitors annually with its thriving art scene and luxurious hotels. However, beneath this allure lies a serious environmental crisis. Overwhelmed by rapid population growth and tourism, the city’s aging sewage systems can no longer handle the demand, leading to untreated wastewater flowing into its rivers, especially the Balili River, which poses significant public health risks. ALEXEY KORNYLYEV VIA DREAMSTIME.COM
DEBT FEARS STALL SEWAGE SOLUTION TO BORROW OR NOT TO BORROW: BAGUIO’S DILEMMA LEAVES SEWAGE PROBLEM ON HOLD
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By Marilou Guieb Conclusion
O solve the stink of Baguio’s sewage problem, the city government has to build a new sewage treatment plant that will serve the city’s growing population of 350,000, as well as the 1.6 million tourists who flock there every year. But the city is now grappling with the problem of funding. Does it borrow from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and be saddled with a debt for the next 30 years, or does it tighten its belt and pay through the nose from the city’s coffers? To realize the goals of the Baguio Resilient City Tourism Project (BRCTP), the city would have to decommission the existing Baguio Sewage Treatment Plant (BSTP) and build a new one with an increased capacity of 12,000 cubic meters per day, from the current 8,000. It would also have to replace and rehabilitate six kilometers of the main sewer to accommodate 5,700 new connections, future and progressive expansion work, other technical aspects and operational expenses requiring a funding of P2.6 billion. The city has a tight annual budget of between P2.5 billion and P2.7 billion, covering basics such as salaries, maintenance and operational expenses, among others. The DPWH, despite its mandate to build sewer treatment plants, has its own backlog to deal with, and the hefty cost of rehabilitating the BSTP is beyond its budget. Mayor Benjamin Magalong explained that the city cannot afford the interest rates of a bank loan. The lifeline: a loan of $46.77 million or P2.6 billion offered by the ADB. The city council, however, has withheld its approval because its members were worried the city lacks the capacity to repay such a huge loan.
The City Fecal Sludge Management Plan 2021-2050
IN preparation for the interventions needed for the BRCTP, the ADB also financed a city fecal sludge management plan for 2021-2050, which the city completed in 2019 under the City Environment and Parks Management Office (CEPMO). A survey was conducted by ADB local representative, Angelina Victoria Ferrer; the City Planning and Development Office headed by Antoinette Anaban and the CEPMO, headed by Rhenan Diwas in 2020. The survey consisted of in-depth interviews among a random sampling of 1,609 households with representatives from the four catchment or river areas. The survey found that only 22 percent of fecal sludge is managed safely; 78 percent ends up in the surrounding environment. Only 13 percent of households have requested for septic tank emptying and usually only when a problem occurs. The survey also found that communal septic tanks discharge effluents into open drainage manholes. Although the city has an ordinance requiring desludging every four years, this is not followed. The survey also found that some 40 percent of the city’s total sludge is surreptitiously dumped into rivers or open sewage manholes by private desludging service providers. This is usually done at night, under the cover of darkness.
THE cleanup of Balili River in Baguio City is part of the nationwide Kalinisan initiative, embodying the spirit of bayanihan. Government agencies and barangay members joined forces to restore the river, which faces serious contamination from inadequate sewage management. With the city’s sole sewage treatment plant, built in 1986, struggling to cope with rising wastewater from a growing population and tourism, this effort underscores the community’s commitment to addressing pressing sewage issues and preserving public health. REDGIE CAWIS PIO-CAR
Asked whether they were willing to pay for sludge emptying services, 86 percent of household respondents said they were willing to, at hand or right after the service, while the rest prefer the desludging fee to be included in their water bill. The surveys determined that a sanitation fee must be collected and a desludging interval of four years must be enforced. A scheme to repay the ADB loan was also formulated.
Repayment scheme for ADB loan
WHILE the ADB loan may seem like a last resort, the city council is di-
vided. One point of contention is the repayment scheme, which includes the collection of sanitation fees and environmental user’s fees. Under the BRCTP scheme, the collection of sanitation fees will be made by the Baguio Water District (BWD) with a 16-percent markup on the water bill, to increase by 10 percent every three years, the basis being that the volume of consumption approximates the wastewater output of the household. BWD also gets P12 per billing. This replaces the old ordinance, which billed households per toilet bowl, a
skewed system which did not work because of the lack of manpower to check every household. Assuming 41,470 households are connected to the BWD, the city expects an annual revenue of P5,810,710 from 2024 to 2053, which is the year the loan should have been fully paid, given the 29year repayment agreement. The consumer will then be spared the burden of paying for the desludging of their septic tanks as this is covered by the sanitation fees in the monthly water bills. This will also ensure that emptying
of septic tanks will be done every four years. Additionally, the city will be imposing on tourists an environmental user’s fee (EUF) of P100 per person per visit with an increase of P20 every three years. Using the yearly baseline of 1,600,000 tourist arrivals and a 3.5-percent growth rate every year, Clemente said the city can generate a potential average revenue of P280 million yearly by 2053, which, together with the sanitation fees, would cover the loan repayment and other costs. Continued on A2
PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 56.0170 n JAPAN 0.3869 n UK 75.1580 n HK 7.2017 n CHINA 7.9899 n SINGAPORE 43.6678 n AUSTRALIA 38.6013 n EU 62.6102 n KOREA 0.0427 n SAUDI ARABIA 14.9343 Source: BSP (September 27, 2024)