More than 800 tons of trash coming from the provinces of Cavite, Laguna, Batangas and Rizal were kept from finally draining to Manila Bay through the trash traps installed along the waterways and the regular cleanup activities of the river rangers on the first quarter of 2022, per report of the Manila Bay Site Coordinating and Management Office (MBSCMO)-4.
About 600 tons of the said wastes were collected by the river rangers while the remaining volume were gathered from the trash traps.
The monitoring of installed trash traps and the conduct of cleanup drives by river rangers are part of the Manila Bay Rehabilitation Program of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) CALABARZON.
Most of the said wastes were from the province of Cavite with a total volume of 634 tons, a whopping 72% of the overall amount of waste collected for the quarter.
Rizal province was distant second with 120 tons total waste collection, followed by Batangas and Laguna with 68 tons and 56 tons, respectively.
465 river rangers across the said provinces were hired and mobilized during the said period: 198 in Cavite being the most populous province of the four and being the area largely covered by the Manila Bay Region, 123 in Laguna, 80 in Rizal, and 51 in Batangas.
The river rangers were able to clean an 80 km stretch along the identified river systems, shorelines, and waterbodies in the region. There were 82 of the 97 trash traps installed all over the region were able to collect solid waste during the quarter: 36 in Cavite, 19 in Rizal, 17 in Laguna, and 10 in Batangas.
The collected solid wastes were transported to various sanitary landfills and materials recovery facilities through the assistance of the concerned local government units.
For this year, DENR CALABARZON through its provincial offices will install 24 more trash traps at the identified waterways in the four provinces covering the Manila Bay Region. Moreover, the office will continue to hire river rangers who will regularly conduct cleanup activities along the various tributaries of the bay within the region.
The installation of trash traps and the hiring and mobilization of river rangers are under Phase 1 (Cleanup/Water Quality Improvement) of the Manila Bay Rehabilitation Program which was launched in January 2019 during the administration of former DENR Secretary Roy A. Cimatu. The said activities were coupled with information and awareness drives among the affected residents.
DENR CALABARZON continues to call on the public to religiously practice proper waste segregation and disposal to lessen the waste leading to Manila Bay and to the ocean.