Baha and basura

Do you know Frank Sinatra’s song about love and marriage? It goes like this…

“Love and marriage, love and marriage, go together like a horse and carriage. This I tell ya, brother, ya can't have one without the other.”

Baha and basura, flood and garbage, seem almost always to go together nowadays. Don’t you notice that where there is flood, there is garbage?

Of course, there is the real issue of an effective drainage system badly/urgently needed all throughout Philippine cities and towns.

Still, basura, garbage remains a persistent problem resulting in floods and other harmful difficulties/challenges for people/communities, the whole world/our planet Earth.

Remember how basura clogged Pasig River before? Look at Pasig River now, without basura/without the garbage.

Before, Guadalupe River and other rivers in Cebu City and all throughout Cebu Province used to be clean, beautiful, allowing for boats to ferry passengers for fishing/trade and recreation.

Look at Guadalupe River and other rivers in Cebu now --dead, covered in filth/basura. No more life/fish/boats/plants.

When shown the slide of Pasig River and of Estero de Paco before and after, Cebu City employees (participating in the training of Composting and Options for Segregated Waste conducted jointly by the Office of the City Mayor/Solid Waste Management Section led by Ms. Emma Ramas and partner RCE-Cebu) unanimously point to basura, its presence and absence, as the key difference in transforming Pasig River and Estero de Paco from dirty/filthy/unusable rivers to clean/healthy/passable/useful rivers.

When asked where the basura came from, all quickly answered “from people!”

When asked what part of a person’s body throws the basura, the easy answer, the hand! No brainer, right?

So then, if basura comes from people, from each person’s hand, then the solution should go to the source of the basura right --the people and their hands that throw the basura, right? From waste generation, right? No brainer, right?

Then why do all LGUs start and solve the problem of basura with waste collection, not waste generation?

Why spend millions for collection, practically none, to stem/stop waste at its source, from generation, from people, from the tiny hands of people?

If you are all wondering why waste continues to persist as a problem, then please take time to realize how your own waste/your own unmanaged/unsegregated waste (starting from your small hands/from your households/communities) end up in dumpsites and landfills, in Inayawan and Binaliw in Cebu City, in Umapad, and elsewhere throughout the country and the world.

Instead of managing your own waste at home, segregating and managing these according to types, most prefer to throw all types of waste in containers, for private/government trucks to transfer/dispose of and ending in smoky, filthy, dirty, unhealthy dumpsites and landfills that have sadly transformed formerly-productive 10-15 hectares of land in Binaliw and Inayawan, respectively, to mixed, unmanaged smoky mountain and home for garbage.

Goodbye ?500 million people’s funds, used/wasted for garbage.

Goodbye productive hectares of land that could have been used for farms or housing for the landless poor and needy especially.

Goodbye to everyone’s sense of responsibility for managing their own waste from their hands, from their homes.

Goodbye to God’s wonderful world now experiencing global warming, resulting from 50-60% garbage contributed irresponsibly by all.

Why not instead do these?

With your own small hands that generate the waste, first, separate kitchen/yard waste, compost and raise gardens, not throw!

Next, reuse paper/plastic and other waste types, not throw!

Then, there would be very little or none to collect, no need for collection trucks/dumpsites/landfills, and, no need to waste precious lands and millions of pesos for garbage!

Reduce/reuse/recycle, easy, no-brainer right?

No basura, no baha/baho/bangaw, no wasted productive lands and public funds, no global warming!

Yes to a better/wonderful garbage-free world for you, me, and all once again!