CH expects 5T people to help in city-wide cleanup

CEBU, Philippines - Around 5,000 employees of the Cebu City government and hundreds of students from different public and private schools in the city are scheduled to assist the Coastal Management Board (CMB) in conducting a city-wide coastal and river cleanup this coming Saturday.

CMB Executive Director Pedro Cuizon said that aside from students and City Hall employees, barangay officials will also join the clean up that will be spearheaded personally by Mayor Michael Rama in order to prevent flooding and promote cleanliness throughout the city.

In yesterday’s press briefing at the City Hall, Cuizon said the coastal portion of the South Road Properties (SRP) is now full of garbage due to the strong current of water from the city’s rivers and creeks during the recent heavy downpour. This is why he wants to concentrate in cleaning up these areas before proceeding to other places.

Cuizon expects the volunteers to gather several tons of garbage from the coastal areas, creeks and rivers in different barangays during the whole-day activity.

Rama encouraged the occupants of each household to always clean up their surroundings and refrain from throwing their garbage into the creek. The mayor said that everybody should unite in cleaning up their surroundings because it will minimize health problems like the occurrence of dengue-related cases.

Cuizon observed that there are still many people who did not change their bad behavior by just throwing their garbage into the drainage systems without knowing it can clog the waterways and result to floods.

He added that hundreds of students, particularly the city scholars who will be asked to participate in the city-wide clean-up, will be tasked to join the so-called Operation Koskos where they will remove the remaining campaign materials in the last elections that are still on walls and electric posts.

Because the CMB was only provided P250,000 budget for this year, it can no longer provide one sack of rice to each of the participating barangays like what the city did last year.

Cuizon said he will recommend a bigger budget for CMB next year and suggested that the mayor’s earlier plan to purchase a barge for coastal clean-up and for other purposes will be pursued and the amount for it will be included in the preparation of next year’s annual budget. –/MIT  (FREEMAN)