We Could Have Solved It!

Garbage has been a perennial problem in the metro and obviously after the typhoon we had in the country, one asks; "how would you solve disaster relief when the problem is disaster relief itself?"

I was moved by the numerous heroic stories by ordinary Filipino citizens and how they were able to help others in this time of crisis. There are a lot of places in the Metro where flooding was up to neck deep but you would not see anyone lose hope and they are still eager to survive no matter where it takes them. I tried to help as much as I can but this has got to stop. If no one resolves the root cause of the problem, then the thousands who perished may haunt us for the injustice. Let us start by just mentioning how many creeks, rivers and lakes are full of garbage. Oh wait, I'm sorry but that would take a while to even think about. I guess those who forced our ears to listen about global warming a few decades ago are laughing at us now.

Where do we put our garbage with so little dump sites and no environmentally friendly incinerators? Experts say we have a lot of land available, but it is just not properly managed. We already have a lot of resources wasted on people with fat pay checks since the fall of dictatorship. Where did we go as far as resolving that? Nowhere! There are standardized and tested systems elsewhere in the world and why should we not employ the same in our land? Software packages are available at Waste Edge and it could have been simply resolved by following a simple system that can be monitored even on line. The Waste Management Software could have saved us millions if someone already thought about this in the first place. Technologies for garbage trucks and personnel that use RFID tags, Mapping, Mapping GIS, GPS Truck tracking should have been used on these savings. I hope they do something soon to resolve this and discipline the citizenry too since urban dwellers often mistake themselves for people who do not learn from their past. I am still optimistic that we can handle change and soon be better.