Toilet bowls are indeed needed!

Toilet Bowl

Somewhere along the way, people’s view of the river changed, Gina Lopez, managing director of the ABS-CBN Foundation (AFI), said at the launch of Kapit Bisig para sa Ilog Pasig, the latest in a long string of efforts to rehabilitate the country’s most prominent river system.

From being a recreation venue and a source of food and livelihood, the river became the 'dumping ground' of informal settlers who live along the banks of the river and its tributaries, as well as by almost all establishments surrounding it.

An estimated 65% of the pollutants in the Pasig river come from households, 30% from the industrial sector and 5% from solid wastes.

Metro Manila’s 11 million-plus residents, according to studies, produce roughly 440 tons of domestic wastewater every day. The river became the city’s toilet bowl.

Worse, as the city continues to wage its battle against solid waste, the river also became the primary dumping ground. Currently, Metro Manila is reportedly producing as much as 7,000 tons or 31 cubic meters of trash per day. Out of this, about 1,500 tons is dumped daily (and illegally) on private land, creeks, rivers and the Manila Bay.

One river clean up effort after another failed as the source of the pollution—Metro Manila’s population of over 10 million individuals—continued to relentlessly dump waste and garbage into the river and its tributaries.

The problem has gotten so bad that some parts of the San Juan river, one of the Pasig’s main tributaries, are already emitting methane.

This is the situation that the AFI took on in March 2008 when its environment arm, Bantay Kalikasan, entered into a seven year agreeement with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to become co-manager of the Pasig River Rehabilitation Project.

The project has since metamorphosed into the Kapit Bisig para sa Ilog Pasig which was formally launched yesterday, February 24, at the Makati Park and Garden.