MANILA, Philippines – For decades, the waters and coastline of Manila Bay look so dirty that you could find trash everywhere. There were times when the waters are rough that the trash are thrown back to the beach and unto the boulevard. Though these made headlines in the papers, nothing much had been done to keep the place clean.
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| Photo credit: Antonio Jr Ampoan Chua-so / Facebook |
Last Sunday, thousands of people joined the massive clean-up at Manila Bay spearheaded by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).
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| Photo credit: Department of Tourism / Facebook |
Dubbed as “Battle for Manila Bay”, the clean-up drive drew around 5,000 people who marched with broomsticks and trash bags to launch the rehabilitation of Manila Bay. With so many people cleaning up the bay’s coastline, the place would soon look very different in just a matter of hours.
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| Photo credit: ABS-CBN News |
Instead of trash covering the coastline, a beautiful beach could now be enjoyed by everyone. A lot of curious people wandered to the area to enjoy the scenery, taking photos of cleaner and Instagram-perfect Manila Bay! Who would have thought that this was the same dirty, smelly bay many didn’t want to visit for years?
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| Photo credit: ABS-CBN News |
The clean-up efforts have been lauded on social media, especially after many netizens shared photos of Roxas boulevard and the beach that looked like they were taken at some tourist destination in another part of the country. Many just could not believe that this was even possible in their lifetime.
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| Photo credit: ABS-CBN News |
While successful, the clean-up drive did not make the bay 100% clean. In fact, while tons of waste had been physically removed from the area, there’s still the threat of unseen dangers in the water.
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| Photo credit: ABS-CBN News |
According to recent results of the water sampling done at the bay, the waters in the bay has 330 million most probable number (mpn) levels of fecal coliform. The standard level is 100 mpn for a body of water to be considered safe for swimming; Manila Bay has more than 3.3 million times of fecal coliform above the standard!
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| Photo credit: ABS-CBN News |
The DENR points to the over 40,000 families living near the bay as major contributors for this number; though there are also dozens of business establishments found to be throwing their waste directly into the bay.
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| Photo credit: ABS-CBN News |
Many hoped that the clean-up efforts started last Sunday would be continued so that Manila Bay will now look clean and beautiful for everyone to enjoy.
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| Photo: Facebook / Antonio Jr Ampoan Chua-so |
— Joy Adalia, The Summit Express
