Metro Manila’s water concessionaires should do their part in rehabilitating Manila Bay by complying with Republic Act 9275 or the Clean Water Act of 2004.
In a statement, the Manila Yacht Club and Buhay Party-list said the water concessionaires should address the bay’s pollution by providing sewage facilities.
“The DENR [Department of Environment and Natural Resources] cannot solve this issue without the water companies speeding up the construction of the sewage treatment plant,” said MYC Commodore Robert Lim Joseph.
“We need to divert all the sewage going into the bay [to the treatment plants],” added Buhay Party-list Rep. Lito Atienza, a former Environment secretary. “Otherwise, there’s no way we can save Manila Bay.”
The water concessionaires collect an environmental fee from its customers that should go toward water treatment efforts, the lawmaker explained.
“Every month, when you pay your water bill, 20% of that is supposedly for the cleaning of our wastewater. If this was done, then the water going to Manila Bay should have been clear water and without stench,” he said.
“They’ve been collecting what they used to call sewage fee—now environmental fee—since 1997. It’s been 22 years!” Atienza exclaimed.
Rehabilitating Manila Bay is a formidable task, Joseph said. To date, waste collectors have amassed 27,000 tons of garbage, he added.
“They will collect around 30,000 tons more from October to December,” said Joseph. “This is 60 years of accumulated waste.”
Manila Bay’s rehabilitation kicked off this January, after the DENR accepted President Rodrigo Duterte’s challenge to rehabilitate and restore the bay’s coastal and marine ecosystems.
“Since we raised this issue with the help of media from November 17 to December 14 last year, DENR
Secretary Roy Cimatu reacted that he would take the challenge,” said Joseph during the Save Manila Bay project lunch-conference on Sept. 6 at the MYC.
Atienza and Joseph discussed strategies and issues on the project during the conference. The latter said that Atienza, when he was DENR secretary, had called on the water concessionaires to comply with the Clean Water Act.
Last month, the Supreme Court held the water firms accountable and fined them almost P1 billion each.
The SC’s ruling imposed a daily fine of P322,102 until they comply.
The efforts of Manila Yacht Club, including the likes of Joseph, environmentalists, the DENR and
Secretary Cimatu will go nowhere unless the two water companies “do their part and expedite the provision of sewerage services for its customers,” said Atienza.
Joseph stressed that the Save Manila Bay project is not only about water. “It’s about our culture, our history, even our fisherfolk too. In our history, we have had a lot of battles here,” he said.
Atienza also said Manila Bay used to pride itself as the most beautiful bay in the world.
“The architect of Manila was Daniel Burnham, an American architect who designed Chicago and Washington. The US government commissioned him to come here and design the development of Manila Bay and the city of Manila. When Daniel Burnham saw the shoreline of Manila Bay, with white sand and clear water, he said: ‘I have just witnessed the most beautiful shoreline in the world!” the lawmaker and former Manila mayor recalled.
“What have we done? We destroyed it! People don’t know how to take care of their economic gain. The good thing now is that people are doing something about it,” he added.