On April 2, 2022, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) recognized the effort of the Province of Palawan, together with the Municipality of El Nido, through the initiative of building the first Sewage and Solid Waste Treatment Plant in the country.
Situated in the center part of El Nido, the self-sustaining state of the art facility was built to address the water pollution and solid waste disposal problem in the said town and can produce 240Kw capacity of renewable energy by its solar and biogas power facilities that can power 20% of El Nido’s power demand.
In his visit, DENR Secretary Jim Sampluna congratulate Palaweños for having the first Treatment Plant in the country.
“Congratulation to the Palaweños for having the first waste and water treatment facility in the whole Philippines… I’ve been in other countries walang ganito [STP] hindi katulad nito na 2 in 1,” DENR Secretary Jim Sampulna said.
The solid waste treatment plant is a joint project between the Provincial Government and the municipality of El Nido with the project cost of 490 million pesos that was built under the compliance of Republic Act No. 9275 or “Clean Water Act of 2004” and Republic Act No. 9003 or “Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000”.
DENR USec. Atty. Juan Miguel Cuna said that Palawan is setting the bar for environmental protection and should be put up in different parts of the country.
“The province of Palawan is setting the tone on what should be done in the different parts of the country… dalawa po sa pinakamahalagang batas when it comes to environmental protection namely Clean Water Act, Republic Act 9275 and R.A 9003 the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act ay tugon po sa pamamagitan ng facility na to [STP]… hopefully we would able to replicate this throughout the country,” Cuna stated.
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