THESE last two Saturdays, the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) has been conducting a Manila Bay cleanup operation along Roxas Boulevard as part of its 43rd anniversary celebration. On Nov. 3, the MMDA workers collected garbage that filled eight dump trucks. Last Nov. 10, they collected another seven truckloads of garbage.
The cleanup drive, which has been joined by workers of the Manila city government, will continue in the next two Saturdays of this month. We have no doubt that many more truckloads of garbage will be collected these coming Saturdays from the bay along Roxas Blvd. And if other town and city governments around Manila Bay were to join in the cleanup drive, the entire nation might wake up to the fact that the whole of Manila Bay has become a cesspool, much more than Boracay when President Duterte ordered it closed down for rehabilitation six months ago.
A big part of the garbage comes floating down the Pasig River from Laguna de Bay and the many streams that flow into it from all over Metro Manila. Worse than garbage is the sewage from millions of households. Manila Bay’s waters are so polluted that swimming is not allowed as mere contact could give rise to all sorts of health problems.
In 2008, acting on a complaint filed by a citizens group, the Supreme Court issued a decision ordering 13 government agencies led by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources “to clean up, rehabilitate, and preserve Manila Bay, restore and maintain its waters to make them fit for swimming, skindiving, and other forms of contact recreation.” That was ten years ago and nothing has been heard from the government agencies ordered to clean up the bay.
The whole world is beginning to wake up to the huge problem of pollution. A major campaign has been launched to act on one aspect of the pollution – that caused by non-biodegradable plastics – millions of tons of which are dumped all over the earth every day, ultimately reaching the world’s seas and oceans. Bits of plastic are consumed by fish and are now beginning to find their way into the human food chain, to threaten the entire human population.
A beginning has been made on one bit of plastic – the straw used to sip soft drinks from bottles. Many Philippine establishments – fast-food outlets, restaurants, and hotels – have now banned the use of plastic straws. It may seem such a small beginning but the hope is that it will grow to include the many millions of tons of plastics now being dumped every day around the world.
The MMDA cleanup drive along Roxas Boulevard is an important part of this worldwide effort to stop the pollution of our planet. It must continue to grow so that one day, it will include every single household and every single individual to get them to avoid the myriad and daily acts of pollution that, taken together, have become a huge threat to our planet and to our lives.
