Obando, Bulacan—In the pursuit of restoring and cleaning the Obando River, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources helped Barangay Binuangan in Obando, Bulacan to regain the waterway’s beauty.
As part of the continuous drive of the Environment department’s “Battle for Manila Bay” and in celebration of International Earth Day, DENR persuaded different groups including the Manila Standard to join the drive for the beautification of the river last Sunday.
For Barangay Binuangan, a village in the middle of the river, it was a much-needed action to start saving their area and have a much greener outlook in life.
Led by their barangay chairperson, Jerry Santos, and Sangguniang Kabataan head, Krizel Bartolome, residents of Binuangan began unloading their wastes properly and collecting piles of rubbish in their man-made landfill and watercourse. Then they put it into sacks that will be disposed of in the right dumping ground with the aid of the local government of Obando.
“Within two months, we have collected more than 5,200 sacks of trash and have reduced our household wastes ever since the start of this proper disposal campaign,” said Santos in an interview.
As cleaning their area will be no easy feat, Santos remains optimistic that in less than six months, Brgy. Binuangan will reestablish its cleanliness.
“We are happy that many have volunteered to help our village, and we hope this river cleanup continues,” he added.
Highlighting the drive, the clean-up party accumulated around 100 sacks of trash within three hours of cleansing the area.
DENR held a program to celebrate Earth Day by having performances from different groups and spreading the word on how to take care of our planet.