Nation

Posted on January 25, 2012 11:26:11 PM


Agency obtains $2-million grant to clean up Manila Bay




THE DEPARTMENT of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has received a $2-million grant for the cleanup of Manila Bay, a Cabinet official said yesterday.

“We have received a $2-million grant from the GEF for cleaning Manila Bay,” Environment Secretary Ramon Jesus P. Paje said on the sidelines of the launch of a United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report at the Edsa Shangri-la Hotel.

He was referring to the Global Environment Facility, a partnership of multilateral agencies.

Mr. Paje said the grant will fund studies on the sources of pollutants as well as the volume of materials dumped into the bay.

The government is committed to clean the heavily polluted bay so that it may become a source of potable water in the future, he said.

The Supreme Court in 2008 ruled that agencies such as the DENR, Metropolitan Manila Development Authority, the departments of Interior and Local Government, Education, Health, Agriculture, Public Works and Highways and Budget and Management, Philippine Coast Guard and Philippine National Police-Maritime Group must rehabilitate the bay, he said.

The issue stemmed from the case filed by the Concerned Residents of Manila Bay before the Cavite Regional Trial Court in 1999. The group noted the government’s continued neglect in cleaning up the bay, famous for its sunset view.

In 2002, the trial court ordered the agencies to come up with a comprehensive plan to restore Manila Bay to class B level, or that it should again be fit for swimming, skin-diving and other recreation.

Mr. Paje said that while the DENR has been tasked to rehabilitate the bay, every individual shares the responsibility to take part in the clean-up.

“The battle is not on the bay but on land due to land-based activities,” he said.

Speaking at the launch of the report titled “Green Economy in a Blue World,” Linwood Pendleton, one of the contributors to the report, and Director of Ocean and Coastal Policy at the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, said that with an estimated 540 million people in the world depending on water systems for their livelihood, it is necessary for businesses as well as governments to come up with activities for the sustainable and equitable use of marine resources.

“We need to have collaborative activities for better management of marine resources,” he said.

The report noted that as healthy oceans are invaluable to human development, businesses and governments must provide funds for greening oceans, and increase awareness for the maintenance of ecosystem services. -- L. D. Desiderio



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