It is one among the basic essential services provided by the government to keep the community clean. However, in the remote provinces, this service is not much of a concern; which oftentimes leads to unsanitary living conditions impacting the general welfare of the community people. Just like any other practice in ensuring a healthy, and safe community, solid waste management is a vital aspect of environmental hygiene. It undoubtedly needs to be incorporated into environmental planning in every social unit.
Since 2015, Poor environmental sanitation is the first problem identified in Barangay Venus. 4 years ago today, Forty-nine percent (49%) or 144 out of 294 surveyed households have no proper collection from municipal dump truck and resort to improper waste disposal, 21% (62 out of 294) do not practice proper waste segregation, 15% (50 out of 323) do not have toilet at home and 7.5% (22 out of 294) do not have trash bins at home. And these data is not far from the current ones. Most of the households do not have a compost pit. There are those who do, but do not practice proper segregation of biodegradable and non-biodegradable wastes at home.
Last October 2016, Team Venus medical students conducted a Waste Analysis and Characterization Study (WACS) in Barangay Venus and results revealed that a huge percentage of waste in the Barangay is biodegradable. Thus, the Team has been at large attempts in informing the people about Composting and its importance, as one of the team’s SWM activities. The team gave out flyers and hosted a seminar on everything the community people need to know about Compost Pits. One of the strategies the team thought of is a Communal Compost Pit Competition by Purok. The criteria and how-tos of the contest was discussed during a Barangay Session with the Barangay Officials present.
The community people were right away informed, and had started landfilling and beautifying their pits immediately. Purok members are robustly informing the team how their pits are; getting their hopes up in winning the contest. Last Nove mber 23, 2018, the team went on an inspection of the communal pit in the 3 Puroks (Jupiter, Mars, Uranus) and so far, it is a tight competition!
The primary goal of this competition is reducing and eliminating adverse impacts of waste materials, especially the “malata” wastes on human health and environment to support economic development and superior quality of life. Who might be the lucky Purok? The awarding will be held on the Araw ng Venus on February, 2019.
