Rainwater Harvesting, Composting and Urban Gardens Project for the Community of Smokey Mountain

The “Rainwater Harvesting, Composting and Urban Gardens Project for the Community of Smokey Mountain” targets a population of urban poor residents who live besides a 2,000,000-ton garbage heap that, for over 40 years, served as a waste disposal facility for Metro Manila.  In the past, the landfill attracted a huge squatter community who scavenged the garbage for their livelihood.  Today, means of livelihood are few and far between.  Following a successful SPM program that created new job opportunities through a new recycling facility in Smokey Mountain (2005-2009), this new program uses an innovative closed-loop approach designed to use rainwater and community processed compost to grow non-toxic produce, thus creating livelihood opportunities through urban gardens as well as food health through locally grown produce. Working with a local multi-purpose cooperative, the Sambayanan ng Muling Pagkabuhay, the project aims to address need in the areas of alternative water sources, food security, and waste management.  Run mostly by women, the cooperative works to involve and engage the community at large in its environmental projects, particularly the younger generations.

Rainwater Collection: The Material Recovery Facility (MRF) completed during the Remediation and Development Program provides a safe environment for processing waste. The cooperative buys waste from various sources and resells recyclables. Washed materials earn a higher price on the market, yet water utilities are costly. As part of this new project, a rainwater collection and storage system will be built on the MRF to provide an alternative source of water for cleaning materials. This will help reduce costs and increase profits for this cooperative business. The water will also be used to irrigate a newly created urban garden.

Urban Garden: During SPM’s over four years of work in the Smokey Mountain area, it came to our attention that community members are growing produce on the former landfill.  In the Remediation and Development Program, an SPM analysis of the soil determined that the landfill was still toxic, and therefore, vegetables grown on this land are harmful to the community’s health.  Providing an environmentally safe place for residents to grow food is an important contribution. Cooperative members will have the opportunity to plant their own food on the plot. A portion of the produce will also be used to support a soup kitchen business, a new activity by the cooperative. The garden will provide increased food security for cooperative members as well as increased profits for the food business by eliminating the need to purchase vegetables and herbs from outside vendors. The rainwater system will irrigate the garden and community compost will serve as a fertilizer for the plants. Because of the toxicity of the land around Smokey Mountain, the gardens will be sealed off from access to the existing topsoil.

Composting: In the Remediation and Development Program, SPM conducted a community-wide waste management campaign, focusing on waste segregation and composting. The composting effort has been immensely successful, with almost all households segregating waste and contributing to compost creation. However, there is a surplus of compost in the community; there are not frequent or sufficient buyers to handle the volume of compost that could be processed. The urban garden will provide a useful outlet for the compost and help increase the volume of compost created from waste in the community.

Short-term Project Outcomes:
1.    Provision of water to the MRF through rainwater collection system; this will become an example for the community in rainwater collection, which can then be expanded more broadly to the 20,000 people living in this community.
2.    Creation of urban gardens (specifically for vegetables) to address food security issues.
3.    Expansion of a community composting facility needed by the local, urban gardens.
4.    Increased savings allocated to improve cooperative operations and member benefits.

Long-term Development Outcomes:
1.    Better health from improved nutrition
2.    Advocacy of rainwater collection and alternative water sources; introducing solutions for adapting to climate change
3.    Awareness on environmental issues in the community related to urban gardening and waste management.

SPM Philippines Team
Director: Anita Celdran
Project Grant Coordinator: Julia Nebrija
Project Operations Manager: Joyet Castor