The Aseana Business Park Estate Association, an organization of locators and lot owners at Aseana City (formerly Aseana Business Park), has joined the call of the government to clean up Manila Bay and nearby esteros.
Located along Roxas Boulevard, Manila Bay is a natural harbor that hosts one of the world’s most majestic sunsets. However, garbage and other pollutants from countless land and sea-based sources have been an eyesore and health issue at Manila Bay.
With the ambition to restore the bay to its former glory, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources started a three-year clean-up campaign, dubbed as the Battle for Manila Bay.
The massive clean-up focused along the coast of Manila Bay, while simultaneous activities are being done in various cities. Aseana City took part through the Adopt-an-Estero program.
As early as June 2013, ABPEA teamed up with the DENR in rehabilitating the 1,404-meter Redemptorist Water Channel, which stretches from Roxas Boulevard to Manila Bay.
Aseana City’s assigned personnel collect an average of 60 to 70 sacks of garbage a week, produced by families living upstream in these canals. To date, ABPEA has already collected more than 168 metric tons of garbage.
Now in its sixth year, the program resulted in a much cleaner waterway which has become a breeding ground for freshwater fish.
“There are so many ways to help our environment bloom again. As an individual, the easiest thing that you can do is to not litter. Pocket your trash. As an establishment owner, segregate waste materials,” said Rhiza Montances, the environmental compliance head of ABPEA.
Montances said Aseana City aims to improve the condition of waste disposal by spearheading environmental seminars directed to businesses and commercial estates within Aseana City.
She said this effort includes proper segregation of garbage, treatment of wastewater discharge and strict implementation of waste management.
According to ABPEA, zeroing waste materials in these water channels might take a long time but can be sustained by provision of boats to easily collect trapped waste materials, installation of floaters and water channel barricades that are made of steel, to the upper and lower area of the water channel, regular clean-up action by Aseana City’s very own volunteer cleaners, and the innovative use of bio fences, inspired by Guatemala’s clean up movement along the Caribbean islands.
In the future, Aseana City hopes to give more life to its adopted estero by increasing pedestrian activity and beautifying the landscape along the water channel. Private institutions and establishments within Aseana City are also encouraged to take part in the clean –up.
Creating healthy ecosystems and keeping the environment robust will always be one of Aseana City’s fundamentals, as it progressively meets its goals of global development, the group said.