Winning the war vs garbage

If we are to trace the historical roots of the present murky waters at the Manila Bay, blame it on the debris, junk and trash that have accumulated through the years and got buried in this body of water. As of present estimate by environmental experts, the deposits of sludge, mud, muck, filth, silt etc. have thickened up two to three meters below the waters of the Manila Bay.

Given the magnitude of the heavy siltation and pollution of this body of water, it is indeed a “tall order” for Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Secretary Roy Cimatu to clean up and restore life to the moribund state of this iconic site of the Manila Bay sunset. President Rodrigo Duterte gave this ginormous task to the DENR Secretary.

Cimatu was designated to head the inter-agency task force to clean up and rehabilitate Manila Bay. Now popularly called as the “Battle of Manila Bay,” Cimatu vows to wage this war against garbage and the culprits and the sources of the filth.

“We have to do what we have to do,” Cimatu declared at the Kapihan sa Manila Bay last Wednesday.

The Manila Bay waters are considered the most polluted in the country due to domestic sewage, toxic industrial effluents from factories and shipping operations, and leachate from garbage dumps, among others. Water monitoring stations that were set up along the bay area have registered levels to as high as 330 million most probable number (mpn) per 100 milliliters.

The standard coliform level for coastal waters which is safe for swimming and other similar recreational activities is only at 100 mpn/100 ml. Swimming into waters with high fecal coliform levels could cause serious diseases not just of the skin but could also be fatal if it enters human body by ingestion. 

While he was only too happy to see the “influx” of people back to the Manila Bay and frolic into the waters, Cimatu warned it is still premature to swim there.

True to his words, Cimatu headed off to the Baywalk in Roxas Boulevard after attending our Kapihan sa Manila Bay weekly breakfast news forum. He checked the on-going fencing of the Bay area that has been turned into instant public swimming grounds. This was several days after 45 tons of garbage were hauled and cleared out of its waters.

He noted with a glimmer of hope that water monitoring stations set up along the Bay area reported that fecal coliform levels got reduced to as much as 35 million mpn per 100 milliliters, taken from the Rajah Soliman outfall, or Station 5. This is the area near the Manila Zoo which was temporarily shut down to install a water treatment system for the animal waste discharge.

“We have not yet gotten rid of pollutants such as those from untreated wastewater being discharged into the Bay. So we strongly advise the public, especially children, to refrain from swimming for now,” Cimatu appealed.

 The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), a member of the task force, started the first phase of the clean up to de-silt Manila Bay waters in order to remove the 40- to 50-year-old sludge and garbage at the bottom of the Bay.

DENR Undersecretary Sherwin Rigor disclosed during our Kapihan sa Manila Bay the DPWH will install “rubberized” diversion drainage along the Baywalk area through which wastewater flowing from the three esteros connected to Roxas Boulevard drainage will pass through. Rigor described this 1.5-kilometer drainage system at the Baywalk area as stretching from the United States embassy all the way to the Manila Yacht Club where a water treatment plant will be constructed by the DPWH.

On the other hand, the DENR’s Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) has set up eight water quality monitoring stations along Roxas Boulevard, between the US embassy and the Manila Yacht Club. Cimatu called for private sector support to the task force. Initially, the task force was looking at P45 billion of available funds to bankroll this year the Manila Bay rehabilitation program.

According to Cimatu, only 15 percent of the water-served population in the National Capital Region (NCR) are connected to a sewerage system with either the Maynilad Water Services Inc. or the Manila Water Co. Inc. But more than 200,000 informal settler families – the politically correct term for squatters – residing in esteros and riverbanks discharge human wastes at the waterways that eventually end up at the Manila Bay.

Under their concession contracts with the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS), Cimatu was informed the two concessionaires are already scouting for government land space to speed up the construction of additional water treatment plants in these unserved areas.

Aside from national government agencies like the DENR and the DPWH, local government units (LGUs) in NCR, Bataan, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, Rizal, and Pampanga and private concessionaires like Maynilad and Manila Water were impleaded in the mandamus issued by the Supreme Court (SC) on Dec. 8, 2008 “to clean up, rehabilitate and preserve Manila Bay in their different capacities.” On Feb. 15, 2011, the SC issued a continuing mandamus to all concerned to comply with the order after taking to task these government agencies for lack of implementation of the High Court order.   

So through these years, it is only now that the Manila Bay rehabilitation is getting this all-out implementation by the government. Cimatu’s latest task came after the “cesspool” clean up of the Boracay island resort. Cimatu was earlier part of the inter-agency task force on Boracay that closed down booming tourism business at the entire resort island last year for six months during its rehabilitation.

In the case of the Bay area rehabilitation, Cimatu assuaged the public there would be no closure of the picture-perfect Manila Bay sunset except for the “no swimming” for now restrictions.

From Boracay to Burak-ay (rough translation sludge), Cimatu also intends to win this war to remove garbage out of the Manila Bay. But where and how, the devil is in the details. Otherwise, it will get a “not in my backyard” retort.