With the continuous heavy rains the past few weeks, Quezon City authorities urged local residents to adhere to the waste segregation scheme to avert slow receding time of floods, ground water pollution and proliferation of infectious ailments such as dengue.

Councilor Jesus “Bong’’ Suntay said the indifference shown by the majority towards proper waste disposal has endangered and put the people’s lives at risk.

Being a tropical country, Suntay said that as of Sept. 1, local health officials have recorded 16,317 dengue cases in the country with the number expected to swell including undocumented cases.

With dengue cases usually peaking this season, the Quezon City government has conducted intense fogging operations and similar activities
destroying the breeding grounds of the harmful mosquito in the barangays and public schools.

Suntay also called on private school authorities to enforce disease prevention schemes in their compounds to spare the teachers, pupils, students and other school personnel from acquiring infectious and deadly diseases.

The disease -mitigation drive of the local government reaped dividends as dengue cases dropped from 1,842 to 1,003 from January to August this year compared to the same period last year.

Suntay advised the public to follow some simple steps to complement the national and city government’s campaign against the spread of the dreaded disease.

With the city producing an average of 1,400 metric tons of garbage daily, Suntay said that things may turn worse, pointing out the people’s indifference in the ecological impact of the massive volume of waste materials that the city produces daily.

He added that around 1.2 tons of discards are added to what goes to the dump ites daily which is equivalent to 36 tons monthly or 438 tons annually.

He noted the situation is alarming, saying that the people’s cooperation and open-mindedness is urgently vital with the massive volume of un-recycled garbage the city produces.

Suntay stressed that the mountains of garbage can be reduced at least into half if only the households would be vigilant enough to practice waste segregation right into their own backyard.