Clean River Zones

This vision of how the Pasig River can look post clean-up was prepared by the Palafox Associates. [Courtesy of the ABS-CBN Foundation]

The new clean up project will have a two-pronged approach: consciousness raising and physical clean up projects.

To rehabilitate the river, Bantay Kalikasan together with all its partner agencies and organizations proposed a set of strategies which will control pollution at source.

The proposed clean-up includes cleaning up all the 47 tributaries that flow into the main river. In order to do this, Bantay Kalikasan plans to strengthen the Clean River Zones (CRZ) started by the Sagip Pasig Movement. These CRZs are composed of communities residing near the tributaries. The Clean River Zone vision is to have “zero toxic input to the Pasig River.”

To achieve this, solid waste management facilities will be set up in the area to ensure that all wastes, biodegradable and non-biodegradable, will be properly segregated and composted or recycled. One incentive for communities to get involved is the income they are expected to generate from making different products like pails, table tops, chairs, tiles, and bricks out of shredded plastics and melted styrofoam.

To address the problem on wastewater, Manila Water and Maynilad—both concessionaires of the Metropolitan Water and Sewerage System—agreed to do the desludging of all households in the CRZ for free.

In addition to this, Bantay Kalikasan proposes to the Local Government Units a good resettlement program coupled with a viable livelihood program for the informal settlers along the tributaries. (See related story: 'Squatters' relocation a must for Pasig River clean-up’)

Media Component

Kapit Bisig para sa Ilog Pasig is not the first effort to clean up the river. There had been a lot of previous efforts, Gina Lopez acknowledged at the project launch on Tuesday, February 24, at the Makati Park and Garden. What is different this time, she said, is the central role the media will be playing in the clean-up campaign. “The media component was missing in previous efforts.”

ABS-CBN Chairman Gabby Lopez assured those present at the launch of the media network’s full support for the project. “We’re excited about this project. The model is the La Mesa Dam. We will apply that model to Pasig.”

Earlier, AFI was also instrumental in transforming and rehabilitating the La Mesa Dam into today’s La Mesa Ecopark, now a popular weekend destination in Quezon City.

The AFI has also been reaching out to major dailies and other networks in respect to the clean-up drive.

The media’s role is crucial because, in order to clean up the river, a change in consciousness is required, Gina Lopez said. “We need to shift consciousness, resurface hope that we can make things happen.”

Any clean-up effort, she explained, is bound to fail if there is no shift in consciousness. “Right now, people treat the river like it’s their toilet bowl.” People, she said, have to start regarding the river again as the “lifeline of our nation.”

Media attention is also important, she said, in order to get local leaders to support and get involved in cleaning up and beautification activities as well as to get them to act on complaints against those violating environmental laws. “You have to give them a pat in the back when they do good,” she told reporters present at the launch. At the same time, she said, media should also report on government inaction with respect to environmental violations.