San Miguel Corp. (SMC) said it is now gearing up to clean and to widen the Pasig River, a heavily-silted and polluted water body but is still considered an economically and ecologically important river in Metro Manila.
The 25.2-kilometer river connects Manila Bay and Laguna de Bay. It once served as an important passenger and commercial route in and out of Manila, the country’s capital city.
Over the years, the degradation of the Pasig River, including its siltation, reduced its capacity to absorb and channel water during heavy and excessive rains, causing flooding in low-lying areas.
The government, through the Pasig River Rehabilitation Commission (PRRC) claims to have significantly improved the physical condition of the river since serious rehabilitation work started in the early 1990s.
In a statement, SMC said with the arrival of 2 dredging equipment which is capable of pulling 600,000 tons of silt and solid waste out of Pasig River per year, the company targets to begin rehabilitation work next month, and will go on for the next 5 years.
“Through the years, Pasig River has become narrower and shallower because of accumulated silt and waste. By cleaning and widening it, we will be able to increase its capacity to keep water flowing within its banks especially during heavy rains,” SMC President Ramon S. Ang said.
SMC, together with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and other concerned government units, is targeting to extract 50,000 tons of waste per month from the river.
Proponents of the project said they have identified sections where the depth of water has been reduced to as little as one meter which will be the priority of the dredging and widening operation.
“After a thorough assessment of Pasig River, we identified sections where the depth of water has been reduced to as little as one meter. These are the most critical portions of the river that cause widespread flooding,” Ang said.
For the Pasig River to effectively serve its purpose of channeling flood waters out to the Manila Bay, its depth should at least be 10 meters. “But garbage and silt over the many decades have reduced this to just one meter in these areas, clogging the river and causing water to overflow everywhere.”
Currently, SMC is already undertaking a major river cleanup—its 5-year, P1 billion corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative to dredge and clean up the 27-kilometer Tullahan-Tinajeros River System, which benefits other flood-prone areas, such as Malabon and Navotas.
Launched in early 2020, with work only fully commencing following the lifting of the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ), the project is seen to help solve flooding in Malabon, Navotas, Valenzuela, Caloocan, Quezon City, as well as Bulacan province, for the longterm.
At the end of 2020, SMC reported it extracted a total of 83,600 metric tons of garbage and silt from the section of the river located in Malabon and Navotas. SMC has since committed to put in more resources and acquire more heavy machinery for the effort.
During the series of typhoons that hit Luzon and Metro Manila towards the end 2020, both flood-prone cities reported no major flooding incidents despite increased water volume. This is largely seen as the combined result of having effective pumping stations and the ongoing Tullahan cleanup by SMC.
“We have had considerable experience in cleaning up rivers, primarily because of Tullahan, and also our successful initiatives to clean up rivers below Skyway 3. [We] are even putting in more resources and buying more equipment for the Tullahan initiative. We are also looking to do this for rivers in Bulacan. Naturally, cleaning up the Pasig River is a big goal that we do not take lightly,” Ang said.
“There have been many noteworthy efforts that have been initiated in the past, in order to rehabilitate the Pasig River. Unfortunately, it has always been a very costly undertaking. Now that San Miguel has a chance to help, we will give it our all.”
Image credits: Namhwi Kim | Dreamstime.comRead full article on BusinessMirror