Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada assured the public on Friday that the daily cleanup of Manila Bay will continue until the end of the month, or until the rains induced by the southwest monsoon or “habagat” stop.
Citing a report from Task Force Manila Cleanup head Che Borromeo, Estrada said they are expecting tons and tons of garbage to swamp the Baywalk area because of heavy downpour almost every day.
“This is because all the garbage from other coastal cities and provinces end up in Manila Bay, especially when it rains. It will build up because of ‘habagat’ until end of September,” Estrada said.
At the height of Typhoon “Gorio” during the last week of July, and later Typhoon “Jolina” last week, city hall workers have been on duty every day and until weekends hauling garbage from Baywalk, Estrada said.
Last weekend, Task Force Manila Cleanup personnel collected up to 19 truckloads of trash and an average of two truckloads a day during the weekdays, according to Borromeo.
“All the trash comes from other places—Cavite, Bataan, and other coastal cities nearby. It only comes here. Manila is the catch basin of all these garbage,” Borromeo lamented.
He pointed out that a huge amount of trash will continue to swamp Baywalk until the end of the month, particularly when another weather disturbance hits Metro Manila, thus further enhancing the southwest monsoon.
“We’re monitoring the weather daily so that we would know whether to deploy more personnel and equipment to do cleanup and garbage collection along the shores of Manila Bay,” Borromeo said.
In fact, truckloads of trash were collected on Friday along the shores of Manila Bay. The Manila Department of Public Safety hauled off truckloads of garbage during their cleanup of the shoreline along Roxas Boulevard.
Plastic, Styrofoam, and bamboo scraps from fish pens were collected during the cleanup.
DPS conducts the massive cleanup during weekends to avoid causing traffic because of the trucks that come in droves to take away the collected garbage. About 25 truckloads are collected during these activities, the DPS added.
On September 16, Estrada will lead the city again in the International Coastal Cleanup Day, the world’s largest annual preservation and protection event and volunteer effort for beaches and waterways.
During the 2015 ICC Day in Manila, Estrada led 8,351 volunteers and 700 Manila City Hall employees and garbage haulers, who were later joined by 1,000 others from 20 private groups, in cleaning up the Baywalk area along Roxas Boulevard.
Held every third Saturday of September, ICC Day was started by the US-based environmental advocacy group Ocean Conservancy in 1986 to engage volunteers in collecting marine debris from the world’s waterways. Around 90 countries, including the Philippines, regularly participate in this event.