Pasig River dredging completed before December

MANILA, Philippines - The Pasig River Rehabilitation Commission (PRRC) expressed optimism yesterday that the Pasig River dredging project will be completed before December 2010.

Months after President Arroyo declared the project as a priority of the national government in March 2008 under Executive Order No. 717, the Commission reported that around 2.07 million out of the total 2.83 million cubic meters of contaminated materials have already been dredged from the riverbed.

The Pasig River Dredging Project was started during the term of former Department of Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Jose Atienza Jr., and is being supported under the leadership of PRRC chair and DENR Secretary Horacio Ramos.

Since the dredging of the Pasig River is now three months ahead of schedule, PRRC hopes that the dredging project will be completed earlier than the deadline set.

Because of these developments, the Commission said it appeals to local governments near the Pasig River and the riverside residents to refrain from indiscriminately throwing their waste into the river so that the solid wastes they dump would not hamper the operations of the dredging project.

“We in PRRC work doubly hard to fulfill our mandate, and for this to happen, we are urging the people and the local officials to help us bring back life to Pasig River,” PRRC Executive Director Deogracias Tablan Jr. said.

For example, he cited the case of the San Juan River, which is currently cleaned up by members of the Pasig River Patrol. The cleanup that started only a month ago has continued to fail because riverside communities continue to carelessly dump their wastes into the river.

At present, three backhoe dredgers simultaneously work 24 hours a day to dredge the remaining sediments specifically along the Lambingan Bridge, near the Nagtahan Bridge, and in the Arroceros, Manila area.

PRRC reported that the continuous dredging of the riverbed sediments has covered more than 14 out of the target 20 kilometers of the total length of the river noting that through 24-hour operations, the depth on these areas has increased from four to six meters.