Cotabato City, International Partners Ink Pact On P40-M Waste Program

Cotabato City Mayor Muslimin Sema during the MOA signing. (Dong Cusain)

COTABATO CITY (Mindanao Examiner / 15 Mar) - The City Government of Cotabato entered into and signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the Accion Contra El Hambre and Handicap International for the commencement of a three-year P40-million project on solid waste management.

Cotabato City Mayor Muslimin G. Sema, along with Nancy Troup, Program Coordinator of Accion Contra El Hambre and Benjamin Gobin, Program Director of Handicap International, signed recently the multi-sectoral undertaking dubbed as “Project on Improvement of the Environmental Living Conditions of Some of the Most Vulnerable Urban Households in Cotabato City”.

Hailed as a shot in the arm for the city government’s waste management program, the said project shall be implemented within 3 years and will eventually benefit an estimated 10,582 households of 10 chosen pilot areas in the city. These include the villages of Tamontaka Mother and 1, Kalanganan Mother, Poblacion Mother, 1, 5, 6, 7 and 8; and Bagua Mother.

Troup said the project aims to improve the standard of living of vulnerable populations in a sustainable manner. It is specifically designed to “reduce the environmental health risks of the beneficiary households living in urban and peri-urban villages of Cotabato City in a sustainable manner through improved waste management practices.”

Meanwhile, Gobin reminded that caring for nature is everybody’s concern. Failure to do so may mean putting every one into environmental risks. He urged everybody to work harder in order to build a clean environment. “We can’t destroy nature without destroying ourselves”, he said.

For his part, Mayor Sema expressed his appreciation and gratefulness to his international partners as the project finally came into reality. He put much hope on the success of the project as it will give the people the chance to have a surrounding cleaner and more conducive to live on.

He is optimistic that waste collection and disposal in the city “will never be the same again” as the project eventually gets momentum. The European Union, thru its Asia Pro-Eco Programme, is co-funding the project. (Dong Cusain)