Ecological Solid Waste Coalition (Ecowaste Coalition) of the Philippines representatives approached ESSC for assistance in developing a location map that will illustrate the location of the new sanitary landfill in relation tot the watershed and rivers in San Mateo.

The case is now pending at the Regional Trial Court of San Mateo, Rizal.

What the map shows

The new sanitary landfill is located approximately within Barangay Pintong Bukawe in San Mateo, Rizal. Its center-point coordinates are E 121.16625 and N 14.69495 within the vicinity of Mount Mataba. With no technical description of the sanitary landfill, its boundaries cannot be provided yet.

The landfill is along the eastern ridge of Mount Mataba within the watershed boundary of Burgos Creek. The watersheds in the adjacent areas are the watershed of Wawa river to the north and the watershed of Ampid River to the south.

The watershed (highlighted in grey shade) of Burgos creek is approximately 2,518 hectares and covers mostly the San Mateo municipality and portions of Rodriguez municipality in the north and Antipolo City in the southeast. These municipalities are all in Rizal Province. Administrative boundaries and areas are unavailable, thereby limiting the information that can be provided on area coverage.

Elevation range is approximately 10 to 410 meters above sea level. The terrain is flat in the northwest area to rolling and steep in the southwest area. The watershed is interspersed with intermittent creeks draining towards Burgos Creek and eventually to Marikina River.

As of January 2010, the total excavated area for the landfill is approximately 2.5 hectares. A leachate pond is also located southeast of the sanitary landfill area and measures approximately 700 square meters.

Within the vicinity of the landfill, elevation is within the range of 350 to 400 meters above sea level. Slope is steep, ranging from 15 to 28 percent.

The sanitary landfill is accessible approximately 6.7 kilometers from the intersection of General A. Luna Road and Kambal Road in Barangay Santa Ana, San Mateo passing through a dirt road of gravel and densely packed dirt/sand.

General A. Luna Road is a major thoroughfare and Kambal Road leads to many of the housing subdivisions. Thus, access to the sanitary landfill will involve passing through densely populated areas.

Limitations of the map

The data and information generated for this map relied on the use of GIS and will require ground verification. Further analysis cannot be done due to the unavailability of official information for the sanitary landfill area and the administrative boundaries where the sanitary landfill is found.