By Josiah Paulo L. Mendoza
October 7, 2022
Volunteers from different government agencies and private sectors collect coastal garbage from Manila Bay Dolomite Beach (Photo taken from ABS-CBN News)
Manila, Philippines – Over 4,000 volunteers participated in the coastal cleanup drive launched by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) on September 17 at the Manila Baywalk Dolomite Beach in Manila in observance of the 2022 International Coastal Cleanup Day (ICC).
The collaboration between private organizations and local government agencies produced 4,500 sacks of waste collected from the coastal shore of Dolomite Beach. Together with DENR employees with disabilities and senior citizens
“Volunteers from government, private organizations, and private individuals came to the Baywalk’s coastline with their garbage bags as well,” de Villa said.
DENR Metropolitan Environmental Office (MEO) West OIC Director Rodelina de Villa specified that the common collected garbage from Dolomite Beach was composed of plastic wastes, dried water hyacinths, and marine debris.
International Coastal Cleanup Day signed by Former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on September 15, 2003, under Presidential Proclamation No. 470.
With a theme of “Fighting for Trash Free Seas-Pilipinas: Ending the Flow of Trash at the Source”. This DENR-led cleanup drive in Dolomite Beach is one of the biggest events on the list of cleanup activities regarding the celebration of ICC day for this year.
De Villa mentioned the efforts of DENR NCR with DENR-MEO West by providing 1,500 trash bags and 3,000 sacks from the Manila Bay Coordinating Office (MBCO). Volunteers received additional garbage bags from the initiative of the local and national government and private sectors. Reinforcements of volunteers deployed to the site from the Manila City government, Philippine Army, Philippine National Police, Philippine Air Force, the PNP-Maritime Group, Philippine Coast Guard and Metropolitan Development Authority (MMDA).
Manila Water Company, Dragon Boat Federation of the Philippines and Maynilad Water Services Incorporation extend their helping hands by supporting the advocacy of DENR in this 2022 Dolomite Beach cleanup drive.
PCG volunteers collecting garbage from Dolomite Beach as part of the 2022 ICC day (Photo by PCG and PTV)
De Villa stated that the collaboration of different volunteers conducting this coastal cleanup drive is essential in addressing the dilemmas of coastal littering, threatening the health of inhabitants and affecting the livelihood of local fisherfolks.
However big and daunting the task is, we can make a difference by bringing communities and people together to clean up beaches. Proof of this are organizations and individuals coming together at the Baywalk Dolomite Beach,” de Villa said.
Not only the problem of waste that the Manila Baywalk strip faced but the controversial multi-million-peso project of Former President Rodrigo Roa Duterte under the Build, Build, Build program. Dolomite Beach is the product of the rehabilitation project of Manila Bay developed by DENR way back in January 2019. The total cost of this rehabilitation program reached PHP 349 million. Because of being questionable, the rehabilitation received huge criticisms from social media users.
“This is so dumb and a very desperate move to cover their failure in rehabilitating Manila Bay. Revealing that the material dumped came from Cebu also made things even worse”
Also, it concerns how Dolomite sand will affect the environment. According to UP College of Science, Institute of Environmental Science & Meteorology (IESM), washing off the sediments of Dolomite sand can affect the habitats of marine creatures and plants by ultimately burying them, reducing the oxygen level in the ocean, and preventing sunlight access.
There are 147,939 sacks of solid waste gathered from the different coastal cleanup drives as per records from July 12 to September 14 of DENR-MEO. At the same time, 83,109 sacks of water hyacinths and 2,224 sacks of marine debris were collected.
Keywords
· 2022 Dolomite Beach cleanup drive
· Presidential Proclamation No. 470
· volunteers
· coastal cleanup drive
· private organizations
· local government agencies
· Dolomite sand
· rehabilitation project of Manila Bay
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