ILOILO CITY — The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) is focused on helping Boracay Island address its solid waste management issues.
Engineer Rowen Gelonga, DOST 6 (Western Visayas) director, said in an interview Friday that while they provided training and livelihood activities for displaced communities when the island was temporarily closed, its long-term engagement would be on responding to Boracay’s solid waste issues.
“We are helping in the putting up of bioreactors for solid waste management,” he said.
A bioreactor is a device that converts biodegradable wastes into compost. Six units of this will be established at the sanitary landfill in Barangay Cabulhan in mainland Malay, Aklan.
Gelonga said that based on their waste assessment management study in Boracay, 40 percent of the wastes being generated are biodegradable.
The Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCAARRD) will also introduce effective micro-organism (EM). A training course will be conducted to teach participants how to produce compost using EM, he added.
Moreover, Gelonga said they are in the process of conducting several research and development projects on wastewater treatment technology.
There is also ongoing consultancy projects, where DOST deployed consultants on waste minimization.
“The usual concept is you generate waste and then you process or manage that. The concept of waste minimization or cleaner production is that you deploy consultants to look at their procedures and activities and then we come up with the recommendation on how to minimize wastes,” Gelonga explained.
Several resorts and food processing businesses on the island have been covered by the consultancy project.
“Essentially, if you look at the involvement of the DOST in waste management, it is a holistic approach,” he said.
Nonetheless, he underscored that “waste management should be the business of everyone.”
“I think it is really imperative for local stakeholders to start campaigning also for the active involvement of tourists in maintaining Boracay as a very good tourism destination for the country,” he said.
Boracay island, which is famous for its white sand beach, opened Friday after it was temporarily closed to tourists last April 26 to undergo environmental rehabilitation. (Perla Lena/PNA)
