Barangay Balatas is one of the 27 barangays of Naga City whose land area totals 1.82 square kilometers or 2.34% as of Naga City’s total land area. Its total population as of 2011 Barangay Census is 8,623 (Barangay Health Center Bulletin Board, 2011) with approximately 1,752 families/households, 259 of which engage in garbage-picking.
Its boundaries are the barangays of Cararayan in the north, Concepcion Grande and Pequena in the south, San Isidro in the east and Dayangdang in the west.
Based on records, the dumpsite in barangay Balatas has been existing since 1966 as an open dumpsite which was later enclosed with concrete fence in 2003 until 2009 (*ENRO, Orozco, 2011). It was built on the site in which part of the river once flowed. After a great typhoon, this part became cut off from the river. The city bought a portion of this land to make use of the more or less 15-meter depth of the dry riverbed. In 1997, because of the overflow of rubbish in the dumpsite, the city resolved to add another 1.7 hectares to the existing refuse dump.
Nowadays, garbage-picking has become a chief source of livelihood for the citizens in the community. This source of income is even passed down from generation to generation of the people in this barangay. A significant percentage of the barrio-folk in Balatas are engaged in this business. It was estimated that the monthly income of these families range from Php 1,500 to Php 5,000 per adult-picker.
* ENRO - Environment and Natural Resources Office, Naga City