A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS:

ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITION IN TABUK

CITY DURING THE ENHANCED COMMUNITY
QUARANTINE
A Research Paper for the College of Civil Engineering
 CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

A. Background

The significance of environmental conditions are in growing recognition for the past

decades with the help of different research that focused on the impact of globalization to the

environment, community, and its constituents. Industrial growth leads to environmental

degradation such as pollution, urban expansion and congestion, and increased consumption of

material goods. As rates of consumption increase around the globe, environmental issues like

pollution and waste production are emerging as pressing social problems for governments and

international organizations. With no control of the uprising industrialization for the economic

growth of each nation, green projects and different organizations that promote and advocate

ways to preserve the environment still claims that even with putting too much effort and trying

expansion of coverage, the significant change of conditions is not enough. However, in a matter

of months, the world has made transformations as the World Health Organization declared a

global pandemic which has since spread all over the globe. Thousands of people have already

died and hundreds are falling ill due to this coronavirus previously unknown before being

discovered in the city of Wuhan, China around in December 2019. Quarantine measures that are

implemented by different governments pushed to slow the spread of the virus by reducing human

contact. This led to the shutting down of economic activities, transportation networks mostly

affecting the aviation industry, and businesses. The minimal to zero movement of people, though

had disrupted society and demobilized global economy, had a remarkable environmental impact.
 Worldwide speaking, levels of pollution in New York have reduced by nearly 50%

because of measures to contain the virus. In China, emissions fell 25% at the start of the year as

people were instructed to stay at home, factories shuttered and coal use fell by 40% at China’s

six largest power plants since the last quarter of 2019. The proportion of days with “good quality

air” was up 11.4% compared with the same time last year in 337 cities across China, according

to its Ministry of Ecology and Environment. In Europe, satellite images show nitrogen dioxide

(NO2) emissions fading away over northern Italy. A similar story is playing out in Spain and the

UK. However, even with claims that this pandemic made the nature heal in some ways, many

experts claim that the reduction of some pollutants don’t make a big impact on the long run.

Still, there are positive sides during this pandemic environmentally speaking. In Philippines, the

restrictive measures made it possible for temporary closure of big establishments and refrained

movement of transport, meaning there is reduction in waste generation. According to the

National Solid Waste Management Status Report for 2008-2018, it was estimated that in 2020,

the country might generate an approximately 18.05 million tons of solid waste based from a

projected waste generation of 0.10 kg to 1 kg per capita per day. 27.1% of the total projected

waste generated will be coming from commercial establishments and 12.1% from institutional

sources. This was predicted with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic out in the factors so

basically, the enhanced community quarantine might possibly affect the volume generation as

afore mentioned, specifically on the first quarter of the year.

This research paper aims to present the effect of the enhanced community quarantine in

environmental conditions specifically in Tabuk City. Tabuk City is a 5 th class city with a land

area of 70,025 hectares in which 42 barangays rest and houses 103, 912 populace. According to
the City Environment and Natural Resources Office, the city generates 0.56 kilogram of solid

waste per capita per day on 2019. With over