City Mayor Eric "Beboy" Codilla of Ormoc and wife visiting the exhibit of recycled products "From Trash to Cash" during Ormoc Fiesta, June 2009

Information, Education and Communication (IEC) activities are essential for a continuous and effective implementation of the 10 years SWM (Solid Waste Management) Plan of Ormoc City. The LGU Ormoc has been doing IEC since 2006 with varying intensity and results. But increasingly realizing the importance of “Bringing SWM to the people” in order to comply with RA 9003  the LGU assigned an IEC team focusing solely on SWM issues  located in the Public Affairs, Information & Assistance Division, headed by Hon. Kag. Alfaro, chairman on SWM.  

Active since April this year, including DED assistance, the “new” team has been diving into a bunch of different activities in order to explore the jungle of possible working areas: from conducting IEC campaigns for various target groups, to promoting  income generating recycling activities, to teaching on composting and finally to assisting several barangays with their SWM programs.

Collection of Paper Bags

Some of the main outcomes are as follows:

-          IEC drives for catholic youth camps (2), a school (1), day care parents (1), barangay residents (6) and brgy officials (3)

-          Integration of the IEC team teachings (3) on composting into the ‘vegetable growing program’ for farmers of the City Agricultural Services Office (CASO)

-          IEC team initiated a skills training on ‘newspaper bag making’ for women in cooperation with the City Social Welfare & Development Office (CSWDO)

-          Trained women exhibited and sold their recycled products during Ormoc Fiesta for 5 consecutive nights

-          Their convincing presentation lead to the invitation for 2 women trainers to hold a workshop at Visayas State University (VSU)

-          So far CSWDO has conducted 12 further trainings on paper recycling in different brgys

-          Official turnover of SWM Plan to the pilot brgy

Lively interest in recycled products such as bags, jewelry made from paper and doy packs during Ormoc Fiesta.

The willingness of the two government offices CSWDO and CASO to cooperate on SWM issues is in terms of sustainability the most important achievement until now. The number of outcomes is not negligible yet their quality sometimes difficult to measure and evaluate. So far the wide range of activities and an evident interest in the recycling program allowed motivation of the IEC team to be kept up. But the responsibilities towards different stakeholders multiply and the capacity of the IEC team to respond is limited.

Therefore it’s time to search for new strategies, turn over responsibilities and get focused. Willingness of barangay officials to cooperate with the IEC-team on SWM issues shall thereby be the primary criteria to sharpen the focus:  

“Quality instead of quantity” regarding the recycling trainings, capacity development of agriculture staff on the subject of composting in order turn over this activity to CASO, using further participatory approaches for different target groups during ongoing IEC drives and their evaluation and assuring a close and regular support to the pilot barangay while starting and maintaining their segregation and composting practices.

Presently a segregated waste collection is only practiced in the city proper covering 29 of 110 districts/ barangays of whole Ormoc City. Only one barangay has established a MRF facility which is unfortunately not used as one but rather as a central collection point of mixed garbage. In Ormoc, SWM on barangay level is still in its infancy and  - once again – depends basically on the commitment and engagement of the barangay officials.

For further information please refer to our DED junior expert Franziska.Meissner@ded.de

Text and Pictures: Franziska Meissner