EDITORIAL – Reviving the Pasig River

In many countries, riverfront properties are among the most expensive pieces of real estate. In our country, people avoid sites near the Pasig River because of the pollution and stink.

For about three decades now, there has been an effort to revive the Pasig River. Fidel Ramos and other members of his generation said that in their youth, they could still swim in the river. During his presidency, his wife Amelita spearheaded a project to revive the Pasig, which cuts through the Malacañang Palace grounds and its security complex.

In those days, the stink from the river penetrated even the air-conditioned Palace complex. Corpses as well as aborted fetuses were often found floating in the river. The macabre joke was that the dead people were not murdered but died from the heavy pollution after falling into the Pasig.

After the Ramos presidency, the Pasig River rehabilitation was pursued on and off. Solid waste and water lilies were regularly collected. Commercial and industrial establishments along the riverbanks were compelled to abide by laws and regulations against water pollution and the disposal of their waste.

The river became clean enough to inaugurate a passenger ferry service in February 2007, which became operational the following month. Both the ferry service and the river rehabilitation, however, remain a work in progress. Industrial, commercial and household waste continue to pollute the river from various tributaries around Metro Manila.

Several countries have shown that it is possible to revive rivers and lakes that are deemed to be dying. Multisectoral cooperation along with multipronged and scientific approaches were employed to make this possible, reviving the bodies of water sufficiently to allow them to be used again for swimming and other recreational activities. In some cases, fish again thrived in the revived rivers.

There’s hope for the Pasig River, but the rehabilitation effort needs a stronger push. Last night, President Marcos launched the third phase of the Pasig River rehabilitation project. Its success requires sustained government support and the cooperation of all the communities through which the river runs.