EDITORIAL - The original cesspool

As the cleanup of Boracay continues, the government may want to take a look at the other body of water that has been a “cesspool” far longer than the resort island. In the 10 years since the Supreme Court directed 13 government agencies to clean up, rehabilitate and preserve Manila Bay, water quality has worsened. This was the assessment of the Senate committee on environment and natural resources after reviewing the progress of the cleanup.

The failure to implement the SC order could have been due in part to the position of the executive that it was an encroachment of the judiciary into the functions of an independent and co-equal branch of government.

Improving water quality in the bay where the country’s biggest port is located is also a tall order. Aside from the international ships that dump all sorts of waste into the water, deliberately or inadvertently, many communities around the bay are home to some of the country’s most impoverished families. One community in the Manila port neighborhood, where most residents make a living producing charcoal, is so filthy it was described by a world-renowned novelist as “the gates of hell.”

These informal settlements dump all their human and other wastes into the bay – and they don’t bother installing pipes underground, as in Boracay, to channel wastewater and fecal matter from their shanties into the sea.

Yet these pollution problems are not insurmountable. Other countries have shown that it is possible to drastically reduce pollution and improve water quality even in rivers and seas used extensively for commercial purposes.

Obviously, effective enforcement of water pollution laws is critical. Random inspections of ships can promote compliance with environmental laws. In the communities around the bay, local government units and barangay offices must bear the responsibility for waste management. Even in informal settlements, this need not prove impossible. Political will and committed involvement of communities can still save the original cesspool that is Manila Bay.