BACOLOD City – The city government of Victorias in Negros Occidental urged the Victorias Milling Co. (VMC), the country’s largest producer of refined sugar, to expedite actions to address the stench caused by the molasses spill incident in the sugar refinery.
The call was made after representatives of the VMC admitted during a legislative inquiry on Wednesday afternoon that it would take more than a month to stop the foul odor that has affected 11 barangays in the city proper.
“Is there a way that you can lessen the one month and one week? Is it possible for you to take other measures to control the foul odor? It is plain to your eyes that you need to do something about this, and one month and one week seem to be unacceptable to us, the people of Victorias. You have to exert more effort to expedite the period,” said Councilor Dino Acuña, chair of the committee on natural resources, environmental protection, and ecology.
Acuña expressed the urgency to VMC legal officer Randolph Angel Tacuyan, pollution control officer Sandy Angeline Ng, and quality assurance/quality control officer Ellaine Muhal, who represented the VMC during the legislative inquiry.
“We are very serious about this issue. Indi gid namon ni gusto. Amo na gapangayo gid kami sang pasensya sa mga residente nga naapektuhan. Our assurance is that our (VMC) board is very supportive of all the measures we are taking,” Tacuyan said.
In a press statement, the city government said the VMC “presented action plans and countermeasures to mitigate the impact and potential damage to the local community,” which include “neutralizing the PH levels of the sugar refinery’s waste and wastewater treatment plant that shall run for about one month and a week.”
Mayor Javier Miguel Benitez on Monday called for an emergency meeting following concerns raised by residents regarding the stench caused by the spill on May 5, which gets worse at night.
“This is due to the increased heat that eventually led to the explosion of one of the tanks of VMC. It was six million liters, or 10,000 metric tons, at full capacity. I feel that our ecological sustainability and preservation and the welfare of our people should be our top priorities. When that happened, we deployed our Bantay Dagat personnel and made sure that no other humans, biodiversity, fish, or others were damaged because of this,” Benitez said in a statement on Tuesday.
Benitez added that the VMC management assured the city government they would extend assistance to the affected families in Barangays 6-A, 8 and 9.
“They will provide 25 kilos of rice every two weeks, and they also committed to cleaning up our rivers and deploying enzymes for liming so that the decomposition of the molasses will not affect the people,” the mayor added. (With reports from PNA)/PN