What a proper and safe dumpsite looks like

Some people have asked me about the characteristics of a good dumpsite, a piece of land where garbage is dumped. In fact, a few cities in Leyte have sought our assistance.

A good dumpsite should be located at least a few kilometers away from the community chiefly for health reasons. It should be far from water bodies like lakes, rivers, and the sea to avoid contaminating these vital life-support systems. The land should not be steeply sloping to prevent landslide and erosion of the wastes to lower areas. The best soil type is clayey (never sandy!) since it is capable of holding the toxic chemicals and thus preventing them from moving with the percolating water to the groundwater (the underground water reservoir from which wells extract their water).

Mangrove areas (kanipaan, kamiyapihan, lala-o) are the home and breeding place (or habitat) for many fishes and marine organisms hence, they should never be used as dumpsite. How about the Borongan City dumpsite? Well, it fails most of the requirements I mentioned above so it is not a proper site and could have serious ecological and health consequences in the long term.