"I hope that the project will eventually turn out to be good for the image of the country."
The Duterte administration should be commended for its effort to clean up Manila Bay. Since the Department of Environment and Natural Resources started the process in early 2019, much has been accomplished. Together with the help of other agencies and local government units, the bay is much cleaner now. The smell of sewer is gone, allowing the people promenading along the baywalk to enjoy their strolls. There are even people fishing and the coliform levels have continued to go down considerably, although the waters are still not safe for swimming.
The City of Manila is doing its part with a team cleaning the bay of solid wastes every day. Manila is also redeveloping Manila Zoo with its own sewer treatment system so that no polluted water will discharge into the bay. As if to declare victory, the DENR is now developing a beach with white sands along Roxas Boulevard.
This project, I must say, is a gesture of confidence on the part of the government that the Bay will stay clean or be made much cleaner to allow safe swimming. For people to be able to swim safely, however, coliform level must be around 250mpn/100ml. Right now, it is nowhere near that number.
The project therefore is perhaps a bridge too far. DENR should wait longer until the desired water quality has been attained. Not to be a kill joy, but I am saying that more work, more money and longer time are needed to clean the bay to the level that swimming by the public would be safe.
If we look at the way other countries cleaned their waterways, it took them a much longer period and a lot more money before the clean-up were completed. Tokyo Bay, for instance, took a long time before it became the way it is now. If we watch the updates of the many vloggers on YouTube who regularly report on the Pasig River and esteros, we could see that there are still a lot of solid waste being thrown into the Pasig River which discharges into the bay. There are also about 11 other rivers discharging polluted water into the bay from four other provinces located around it. This is the reason why there is still a considerable amount of garbage being collected every day, especially when it rains.
Along the Pasig River alone, there are many tributaries occupied by thousands of informal settlers discharging sewer and garbage into it every day. This must be stopped permanently if there is even a small chance of being able to keep the bay clean. The government cannot obviously be cleaning the bay area fronting Roxas Boulevard, while other rivers and esteros discharge sewer and solid wastes into the bay every day.
At a certain point in time, we Filipinos must learn how to dispose our trash properly by not throwing waste into our rivers. I do not know the exact percentage of the National Capital Region with a sewer system but it cannot be more than 15 percent, which is very low given that the NCR has a population of about 13 million people. We can only imagine the amount of garbage that is not collected properly and that ends up in our rivers and, ultimately, in Manila Bay.
One official from the DENR said that with the beach, maybe people will be encouraged to keep the bay clean by not throwing garbage anywhere that will eventually end up polluting it. He has a point. He should have also pointed out the beautiful sunset of Manila Bay reputed to be the best in the world that we can all be proud of and prouder still if the bay can be kept clean permanently.
In spite of my serious misgivings, the project deserves a chance to be tried. The critics should hold their punches until the project is completed and then see what happens. There may be issues but the public should concentrate more on the positive things that were accomplished since the clean-up was started instead of the negatives. After all, this project was undertaken partly because of a Supreme Court order. The objectives were good.
As to the medical concerns regarding dolomite, I am sure that the government agency that will eventually manage the beach will have proper protocols. I hope, however, that the DENR took everything into consideration including the fact that during typhoons, storm surges along Roxas Boulevard reaches the road. This has the potential to wipe out the beach that is being developed.
The beach may not end up rivaling Copacabana and Ipanema beaches in Rio de Janeiro, but let us hope that the project will eventually turn out to be good for the image of the country.