The Environment department said Friday it is all systems go for the start of the rehabilitation of Manila Bay on Jan. 27.
Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu called the rehabilitation the “Battle for Manila Bay,” which would bring together more than 5,000 participants.
Most of the participants will come from his department and from 12 other government agencies who will execute the Supreme Court’s order in 2008 to clean up the bay.
“This is a battle that will be won not with force or arms but with the firm resolve to bring Manila Bay back to life,” Cimatu said.
“Manila Bay and the environment, in general, is not a lost cause.”
The rehabilitation does not only involve cleaning up the bay but also relocating the illegal settlers around it and ensuring the establishments around the area observe the Clean Water Act of 2004 and other environmental laws.
Meanwhile, the Environment department is urging the participants of the Manila Bay rehabilitation launching at the Baywalk area on Sunday to use reusable containers in packing food and water.
“We’re encouraging them to bring their own reusable containers like bottles for water that they’ll drink during the launch,” the department’s Strategic Alliance and Environmental Partnership Division Chief Raymond Virgino said.
He said they were promoting reusable materials as the plastic and paper containers people discard after use might end up at the Manila Bay, polluting its water and increasing the volume of trash there.
The participants could request water and refill their containers at the drinking stations of private water concessionaire Manila Water Company Inc., which serves the Baywalk area, Virgino said.
The authorities continue to warn against diseases that could be contracted from Manila Bay’s waters as the department said the decades-long flow of solid waste and untreated discharge had raised the level of coliform bacteria there to more than 330 million most probable number per 100 milliliters.
The safe coliform level is 100 MPN per 100 milliliters only, according to the department.