The Department of Environment and Natural Resources has found a cause for celebration: The water quality of major outfalls directly draining into Manila Bay a year after the polluted water body started undergoing rehabilitation have shown significant improvements.
“There is reason to celebrate because a year after we launched the Battle for Manila Bay, we have recorded significant improvements in the water quality from major drainage outfalls,” Secretary Roy Cimatu said.
The DENR chief heads the Manila Bay Task Force.
Before the Jan. 26, 2019 rehabilitation, the DENR posted extremely high fecal levels from major Manila Bay outfalls.
According to Cimatu, the most recent data from the DENR’s Environmental Management Bureau showed that the coliform levels “drastically decreased.”
Citing EMB data, he said the fecal coliform count at the Padre Faura outfall is now down to 920,000 most probable number per 100 milliliter (mpn/100ml) from its pre-rehab record of 7.21 million mpn/100ml.
From 35 million mpn/100ml recorded before the rehabilitation began, he added, the coliform level at the Raja Soliman/Remedios drainage outfall across Aristocrat Restaurant went down to 11 million mpn/100ml, while the coliform level at the Manila Yacht Club outfall went down to 54 million mpn/100ml from a high of 110 million mpn/100ml.
Despite such improvements, Cimatu vowed to do more interventions, especially since the standard fecal coliform level in Manila Bay is 100 mpn/100ml based on its classification as “Class SB” coastal and marine water.
In 2019, over 10,000 volunteers joined a massive cleanup activity along Roxas Boulevard in Manila and other areas in the bay region.
President Rodrigo Duterte allocated P42.95 billion for the implementation of the Manila Bay rehabilitation project within three years with 13 government agencies tasked to clean up the bay.
The government targets the source of water pollution in an effort to rehabilitate, restore and maintain the historic bay to a level fit for swimming as mandated in the mandamus issued by the Supreme Court in 2008.