By MIKE GUIMBATAN JR.
SAN FERNANDO CITY, La Union – Traffic, pollution, garbage and slum dwellings are the nightmares of urban planners, but to officials of this seven-year-old city, these challenges are now being addressed to prevent them from becoming serious problems.
City Mayor Maryjane Ortega met these challenges squarely, and her efforts are now paying off with the smooth implementation of development projects. As a result, the city is now enjoying international recognition.
Political will is not a problem because of a joint development strategy developed by the mayor and her husband, the incumbent governor of La Union.
With the strategy, the city attempts to attain a 70 percent dependence on local revenues and only 30 percent dependence on the internal revenue allotment (IRA).
To forestall solid waste-disposal problem in the future, waste segregation education has become every city resident’s responsibility.
Althea Balanon, city accountant, said discipline in segregation and the time and proper disposal has become the responsibility of barangay officials and household members maintaining the waste management principles of "Reduce, Re-use, Recycle and Compact."
The city government does the collection and disposal. It abandoned an open dumpsite and opened a controlled dumpsite in the city’s outskirt.
Ms. Balanon said the city government recently contracted out an engineered sanitary landfill project, the first of its kind in the country under a "Design, Build and Operate" scheme. Funded with a World Bank loan, the
R163-million facility is expected to be operational by July next year.
Squatting in the prime beach areas was properly addressed before it became an urban nuisance.
City Legal Officer Versely Limos, in her city development strategy presentation, said the city government started relocating the squatters but since most of them are fishermen, they returned to the shorelines.
A study was conducted, and it was found out that only 60 percent of the dwellers are fishermen. The fishermen were relocated to a site near the shoreline, while the 40 percent were relocated to an inland site. In the fisherman’s village, at least 100 housing units were built. Each fisherman was given a 28-square-meter lot sold at
R13,800 and a housing unit at R87,000 payable in 25 years.
To ease traffic, a diversion road outside the city business district was completed for north-bound vehicles, avoiding traffic in the city’s central crossroads.
But nature has become the city’s preferred attraction scheme in support of its business and recreation convergence among adjacent La union municipalities.
The city takes pride in its natural botanical garden situated in the inland mountain slopes.
Tourism Officer Glynis Balagot said, it is one of most visited places because of its natural flora and fauna.
