Policemen in San Jose City don’t mind being in murky waters of an irrigation canal to remove the debris that hampers the free flow of water. They were part of 1,200 people who clean up the waterway that empties, with dirt and all, to the Manila Bay 160 kilometers away. PHOTO BY ELMO ROQUE
SAN JOSE CITY – Having in mind the welfare of Manila Bay, which is at least 160 kilometers away from here, more than a thousand “cleaners” removed debris, cut the grasses, and scooped up water lilies in a 5.5-kilometer irrigation canal here Saturday.
“We want to help in the continuing drive for the rehabilitation and preservation of Manila Bay,” Mayor Marivic Belena said here during the two-hour clean-up operation. “We were told that in the drainage map, our waterways here empty also into Manila Bay.”
Before the actual cleanup, which started at 7 a.m., Belena exhorted the “cleaners” to do the job for the sake of Manila Bay and of “our own”. She said it is just but part of the continuing efforts of the city government for a massive clean-up in the city, particularly as regards non-biodegradable plastic material that degrade the environment.
She told those joining the “Bayanihan para sa Kalikasan” (helping hands for the environment) of the writ of the continuing mandamus issued by the Supreme Court in 2008 for the restoration of the dirty and slowly dying Manila Bay to be fit for swimming and other contact recreation.
“But closer to home, we are doing it also for the sake of our thousands of hectares of rice land being deprived of irrigation water because of our clogged canals and other waterways,” Belena said. Trina Domingo-Cruz, city environment and natural resources chief, said the 1,200 cleaners included soldiers, policemen, city employees, members of civic society, students, barangay officials, residents, and officials and employees of the national government agencies like the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, National Irrigation Administration, Department of Health, and Department of Public Works and Highways.
“It covered a total of 5.5 kilometers of the irrigation canal in four barangays here that drains to the Pampanga River and up to Manila Bay,” said Cruz, who coordinated the event as a fitting highlight for the charter anniversary of this city.
She and Belena invited this writer to witness the intense clean-up activity in the whole stretch of target sites. The tons of debris, that included plastic materials, wood, water lilies, and grasses scooped up from the canal will be transported to the city material recovery facilities here for other uses, she said.
“Our next target is our main river here and the creeks for a similar clean-up activity. We hope that these efforts will further instill to our residents here the discipline of helping maintain the cleanliness of our environment,” Cruz said.
