CEBU, Philippines — The Cebu City government gets much-needed help from a Finland company to help the city’s seas and rivers from plastics.
The city government led by Mayor Michael Rama and the Clewat Ltd. have formally launched a sea-cleaning vessel for coastal garbage cleanup the other day in Barangay Pasil.
Clewat Ltd has developed new technologies to collect plastic, harmful plants, and oil from the water systems and also an effective method to melt snow environmentally-friendly accordingly.
Rama asked for the Cebuanos’ cooperation not only in the cleanup itself, but the discipline in maintaining cleanliness around also in respect to the foreign help they got.
Clewat’s proposal was brought to the city government early last year yet under the late mayor Edgardo Labella.
Cebu City Councilor Joel Garganera, who sponsored the resolution allowing the late mayor Labella to enter an agreement with Clewat, said everything is for free, thanks to a corporate partner of the said company.
The project actually has two phases: piloting research and operational cleaning and research as well.
“The purpose of the project is to clean the rivers of Cebu area from marine litter with our new Cleansweep IV-vessel,” Chief Commercial Officer Marko Kärkkäinen said on their website.
With Rama together with Councilors Dondon Hontiveros and Garganera and Barangay Pasil officials and residents, Kärkkäinen felt a sigh of relief that finally, the project is moving forward.
“City Mayor of Cebu has attended the ceremony, as well as City Councilors, Captain of Barangay Pasil, representatives of Clewat and local residents. The feeling in the ceremony was relieved and happy – help with waste problems has been clearly needed!”
Kärkkäinen emphasized that plastic that has already ended up in the water systems breaks into microplastics, and all impacts of it into the marine organisms, and ecosystems.
“So it is important to collect it away from the water systems. The vessel of Clewat is collecting even 6 m3 of marine litter in one hour in the Philippines, so the advantage of it is excellent efficiency. It is also possible to collect micro plastics with our vessel,” Kärkkäinen emphasized. — GMR (FREEMAN)