City’s coastal cleanup includes eliminating dengue breed sites

In addition to the usual work for today’s 10th Coastal Clean Up activity, the city’s Coastal Management Board said it will work also on eliminating all possible breeding sites of dengue-carrying mosquitoes.

Vice Mayor Michael Rama, who sits as chairman of the CMB, yesterday urged barangay captains to participate in the task by encouraging their constituents to clean their surroundings and educate them about dengue.

Rama briefed barangay officials yesterday and discussed with them the additional task for today’s activity, which will be participated by officials from 50 barangays in the city.

Starting 7 a.m. today, thousands of students from different schools, volunteers, environmentalists and city and barangay officials are expected to join the 10th quarterly coastal cleanup of the city government.

Rama however said that those who will join the clean up should not only focus on cleaning the surroundings of garbage but also on eliminating the breeding sites of mosquitoes.

The vice mayor warned that the city is still under a state of continuing calamity because of the increasing cases of dengue based on latest reports. He said that one way to address the problem is for everybody to help one another in the cleanup activities.

“The city alone could not clean all the 80 barangays. So we have to work together and instill in our constituents the spirit of barangayan, bayanihan and boluntarismo to achieve what we want to achieve,” Rama told barangay officials.

Aside from the coastal and urban barangays, the Cebu City Uptown Progressive Movement, a group of establishment owners and businesses in the uptown part of the city, will also be joining today’s cleanup activity.

CCPUM also turned over to the CMB yesterday several tools and equipment to be used in the activity, such as boots, gloves, masks and flashlights, among others.

Councilor Edwin Jagmoc said that educating the residents and encouraging them to participate is very important. Residents must be taught how to reduce, reuse, and recycle garbage to lessen the volume of trash at the Inayawan dumpsite.

Jagmoc explained that the landfill takes 500 tons of garbage a day and should this continue, the lifespan of the landfill will be shortened. He said that composting of biodegradable trash, which makes up 50 percent of the total volume of dumped wastes at Inayawan, is a way to reduce the garbage.

Since the coastal clean up started three years ago, a total of more than a ton of garbage were already collected from creeks, rivers and shorelines.

The clean up has been done quarterly and since then has gained more and more participants and supporters.  — Wenna A. Berondo/RAE