Davao partners with Japanese local government, JICA to boost solid waste management

May 3, 2017

The City Government of Davao launched recently an initiative to boost its solid waste management in partnership with Environment Bureau City of Kitakyushu, Japanese non-profit group Kitakyushu City Environmental Preservation Association (KEPA) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). The three-year development cooperation project will pilot waste reduction measures in Davao based on the experiences of Japan’s Kitakyushu City and establish a waste management system in the city, a statement from JICA said Wednesday. On average, Davao collects 600 tons of garbage every day and with this rate, is seen to exceed the capacity of the city’s sanitary landfill in two years. “We are actively considering introducing new ways to enhance the city’s waste reduction system with help from Kitakyushu City and JICA. Davao as an emerging growth center is also seeing a rise in its population and we are ready to implement a solid waste management system to deal with household garbage and industrial waste,” said Elisa  Madrazo, City Environment and Natural Resources Officer. The Davao City government took this seriously and is interested to learn from the experiences of Japanese municipalities on waste reduction, recycling, and new technology on solid waste management. The project will also identify model enterprises in Davao implementing waste recycling, establish an organization to promote recycling, and implement a waste emission and analysis survey to help Davao implement its own solid waste management system. KEPA introduced solid waste treatment flow in Kitakyushu City. “Kitakyushu city’s waste disposal costs were reduced from 16.1 billion yen to 13.3 billion yen due to waste reduction. We have Kitakyushu Eco-Town Project, the only Zero Emission Complex in Japan using Material and Thermal Recycling to promote environment-friendly activities to communities, private sector, and local governments,” said KEPA Research Division Subsection Chief and Project Manager Nobuyuki Ogata. The cooperation is part of the JICA Partnership Program, a scheme under the agency’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) that taps Japanese local governments to address social and economic development issues of recipient countries. JICA is also assisting Davao in an Infrastructure Development and Capacity Building initiative to help the city identify an efficient infrastructure network to attract investments and sustain development. DMS