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PHILIPPINES: Revival of Filthy River Flows from Changed Habits

Kara Santos

MANILA, Apr 18 2010 (IPS) - While more developed countries consider waterfronts prime property, most Filipinos have regarded rivers and creeks as their “backyard” and sewage system.

Over 60 percent of the pollution of an historic and major waterway, the Pasig River, comes from untreated direct discharge of domestic waste, says the Philippine environmental department’s Pasig River Rehabilitation Commission (PRRC).

As a result, the Pasig, which connects two bays in this South-east Asian country, was declared biologically dead in the 1990s. But a 2008 study by the environment department found that several species were still thriving, sparking new hope for reviving the 19-kilometre river.

Last year, the PRRC embarked on a massive dredging project to deepen the river’s depth from three to six metres and remove the huge amounts of garbage lying beneath.

“In the seven months of dredging operations, 75 percent or two million out of the target 2.83 million cubic metres of contaminated riverbed has been dredged, ” says PRRC Executive Director Deogracias Tablan, an architect.

Everything from decades-old disposable diapers, old tyres, entire cars and sunken boats were dug up from the river, he adds.

To think that 66-year-old Ben Galindo says that when he was a child, the Pasig was “so clear and blue”. Growing up in a village near it, Galindo says the river was where he learned to swim at the age of seven.

“In those days,” he adds, “when we didn’t have any dinner, my father would just go down to the river with a net and come back with so many different fish for us to eat.”

Back then, there were only 20 houses in their area, he says. But from the 1960s onwards, rows and rows of shanties sprouted along easements of riverbanks and creeks in the capital as people from provinces migrated to the city.

Since there were no facilities to speak of, Galindo says, people made holes in the floors, making the rivers their toilet.

Decades later, negligence, lack of proper sanitation systems, and rapid urbanisation had turned the waters of Pasig into filthy, sluggish soup. Islands of garbage began floating along its whole murky stretch. Creeks became clogged in layers of trash so thick that in some areas children could walk on the river. The stench of decay hovered under bridges from the dumpsites of the slums.

Instead of fish, discarded plastic bags and used bottles made up the haul of scavengers from the waterways.

These days, the PRRC says its dredging operations would not only reduce health risks to residents and improve the river’s navigation potential, but help prevent flooding.

At the height of Typhoon Ketsana last year, swollen rivers forced families to take refuge on their roofs amid the worst flooding the country had seen in over 40 years.

After dredging is completed, PRRC plans to treat the water through bio/phytoremediation activities. But Tablan points out that there is no use doing this if people continue to throw garbage in its waters.

Relocating the thousands of families along the river to alternative communities with livelihood opportunities is another crucial step underway, with ABS-CBN Foundation Inc, the socio-civic arm of a major broadcasting network, taking the helm.

Working to change residents’ poor waste-handling habits, the foundation has constructed facilities for segregating trash, along with communal toilets in impoverished areas.

“Residents can use the toilets in exchange for their recyclable goods, so they are encouraged to segregate their recyclables and bring it to our facility,” says project engineer Richard Penaflor.

A United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) study estimates that with an average waste generation of 0.5 kg per person, the garbage in Metro Manila alone amounts to 5,250 metric tonnes per day. If residents even just halved the amount of their garbage, this will lead to a sizeable reduction in solid waste over time, says Penaflor.

Yet while many are quick to blame urban blight on the poor, former environment secretary Elisea Gozun of the Earth Day Network stresses that the sanitation systems are not only inadequate but badly designed and constructed.

“The 12 million Filipinos who live and work in Metro Manila all contribute to the pollution in our waterways as only a small percentage of households are connected to a sewer system,” says Gozun, adding that majority of household septic tanks are improperly designed, leading to eventual seepage into waterways.

Groups are now also addressing the problem of industrial waste, which accounts for 35 percent of the river‘s pollution.

One non-profit organisation, the Sagip Pasig (Save Pasig) Movement, has even organised the ‘Lason (Poison)’ Awards ‘honouring’ firms that pollute the river.

Movement head Myrna Jimenez says the mock awards’ recipients have tried harder to address their inadequacies. For instance, a year after it became a ‘Lason’ awardee, the local fastfood chain Jollibee was honoured for real for building a new waste-treatment plant.

Since ‘Lason’ began, Jimenez says, there has been a 15-percent reduction of river pollution caused by industrial firms.

Advocates say that involving communities is key to restoring the Pasig’s pristine state. Says ABS-CBN foundation’s Penaflor: “No matter how many millions of pesos we spend, if each person doesn’t have the consciousness to dispose of garbage in the right way, then nothing will happen.”

Galindo agrees: “People really need to change their thinking that rivers are a place to throw trash, and instead treat it as a precious resource.”