DENR starts Tullahan river cleanup

MANILA, Philippines — The city and national governments, together with the private sector, have started the cleanup of the Tullahan-Tinajeros river system in Malabon and Navotas. 

Mayors Toby Tiangco of Navotas and Antolin Oreta III of Malabon led the formal launch of the cleanup at the Navotas Centennial Park on Monday.

The cleanup, part of a P1-billion investment to widen the river by removing silt and garbage, will start with dredging the river using the heavy equipment provided by San Miguel Corp. (SMC).

SMC president Ramon Ang said the heavy equipment made in Japan – backhoes with barges, 55-tonner cranes with barges, tugboats and dump trucks – will be stationed near the river so that the local and national government can sustain the dredging activities.

Ang said dredging the river system is a necessary step to ease flooding in Bulacan for the construction of the New Manila International Airport, another SMC project.

Tiangco said there is a need to sustain the cleaup of the 36.4-kilometer Navotas and Malabon river system.

Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu said the river cleanup is a necessary step for the rehabilitation of Manila Bay. The river system flows from the La Mesa watershed and drains into the Manila Bay.

Cimatu said the coliform level in the Tullahan-Tinajeros river system dropped to 29 million average coliform level in 2019, from 269 million in 2018 and 10 billion in 2017.

 “The cleanup of the river system is critical to our bigger mission of rehabilitating the Manila Bay,” Cimatu said.