MMDA to businessmen: Lend us your dredging equipment, backhoes

MANILA, Philippines - Metropolitan Manila Development Authority chairman Francis Tolentino appealed yesterday to businessmen to let the agency borrow their heavy equipment, saying the MMDA’s lack of dredging machines hampers efforts to clean the metropolis’ waterways.

The MMDA started last week a 10-day massive cleanup of eight esteros in various parts of Metro Manila as part of its effort to prevent flooding like the one brought about by tropical storm “Ondoy.”

“We have insufficient equipment for dredging and backhoes. I’m asking the private sectors and businessmen selling surplus heavy equipment to lend us their dredging equipment just in 10 days or 80 hours, The agency will load up gasoline and we promise we will return the equipment in good condition. We cannot do this alone. We need your help,” Tolentino said.

Tolentino said the private sector can implement a “borrow now, pay later” scheme for the surplus equipment. He said the MMDA would take care of the operating expenses while the equipment is being used.

Tolentino said they would also ask the local government units (LGUs), especially those in the flood-prone areas in Metro Manila, to give the business establishments “tax break” should they help the flood control program of the government.

Tolentino said 55,000 lineal meters of waterways in Metro Manila need dredging due to accumulated sludge and waste. He said the MMDA has so far managed to clean 25,600 lineal meters of the lineal waterways in Metro Manila.

Tolentino urged the private sector to do their share in maintaining cleanliness in their own frontages and to observe proper waste disposal.

He said businessmen can serve as spotters of floods in their vicinity and prevent their customers from illegally parking their vehicles on the sidewalks in front of their establishments.

“Every Metro Manilan can be a part of this effort. We can start by cleaning up the streets and by refraining from littering. Every piece of trash that is indiscriminately thrown ends up in the waterway, which ultimately causes floods and endangers our lives,” Tolentino said.

The MMDA earlier admitted that pumping stations in Metro Manila are working only at 70 percent capacity due to the unrestrained dumping of waste despite their effort to collect the garbage and bring it to the proper disposal area.