2,000 volunteers troop to lahug river: Cleanup collects 25 tons of trash

CEBU, Philippines —  The Cebu City government and the more than 2,000 volunteers have collected almost 25 tons of garbage thrown into the 17-kilometer stretch of the Lahug River.

In terms of volume of garbage, this is higher compared to the 22 tons of wastes collected along the Bulacao River last month.  The Bulacao River, however, is just 11 kilometers long.

Yesterday, more than 2,000 volunteers from different agencies have helped the Cebu City Environment and Natural Resources Office, Environmental Management Bureau-7 and other stakeholders in cleaning the 16 to 17-kilometer long Lahug River.

“Ang pinakahugaw ang diri gyud sa Upper Laguerta uy. Daghan kaayong basura, mga plastics ug mga dahon sa lubi nga didto ra gilabay. Hinoon, nanabang ang mga barangay officials ug ubang mga residente,” CENRO Chief Ma. Nida Cabrera told The FREEMAN.

She said Lahug River is “dirtier” compared to the Bulacao River.

One new thing that was done in the activity along the Lahug River is the waste branding, wherein wastes were sorted according to its brand, she said.

“Naa tay partnership sa Greenpeace. Ilang tuyo is ma-identify ang common plastics nga gigamit sa mga tao maong gi-sort nato ang water bottles, ug ubang mga packaging sa goods,” she said.

Cabrera said the sorting might be completed until Sunday considering that tons of garbage were collected.

She said the city government will call the attention of the companies with plastic packages that are thrown into the river to ensure that they will also do something in minimizing the use of plastics as packaging.

Just like what the initiative the CCENRO has done after the cleanup along the Bulacao River, the office will profile all residents along the three-meter easement zone of the Lahug River, Cabrera said.

There will also be consultation and information and education campaign among the residents to ensure that the people will know their responsibility on the importance of cleanliness of the river, she said.

Cabrera added similar incidents in Bulacao River also happened in Lahug River, wherein some people and establishments throw their waste water directly into the river.

She said the barangay environmental officers have not issued citation tickets to the violators as of yet, adding that they will do it after the information dissemination and education campaign.

For the first offense of City Ordinance No. 2398 or the Septage Management Ordinance, violators will be fined P1,000 while the succeeding offenses will cause them P3,000 and P5,000 for the second and third offenses, respectively. — GAN (FREEMAN)