EDITORIAL — An anchor’s weight in trash

An estimated 375 tons of trash, debris, and waste materials were recently dredged out of the Tejero Creek in Cebu City following a cleanup operation that lasted several days. The trash alone weighed 15 tons, roughly the weight of a cruise ship anchor.

Trash doesn’t have legs to move on its own. That it ended up in the creek means someone put it there or it ended up there after someone threw trash where he or she shouldn’t have.

This is literally heavy proof that we still have a lot to learn when it comes to disposing of our trash properly. But where do we begin to change such a --we are ashamed to admit it-- culture of uncleanliness?

You know what we are talking about. If we observe the behavior of ordinary Filipinos in the streets today it becomes obvious they are still cavalier about where their trash ends up; cigarette butts are nonchalantly flicked into the street, junk food packets are dropped without a care, and plastic bottles, among other single-use items, are readily discarded everywhere.

We all know what happens next; carelessly-discarded trash piles up and they end up blocking the drainage, becoming a major cause of flooding when the rains come.

One thing that can help is adults acting responsibly. It doesn’t matter how often and how hard cleanliness is drilled into our children in school if at home the parents act otherwise. Children will always emulate what they see adults do, and when they see their parents being irresponsible with how they throw their trash they will follow suit.

That anchor’s weight in trash was found in one creek alone, we are sure there are more tons of trash in other creeks and other places that overflow and lead to flooding following heavy rains.

Never mind the Singapore-like vision for the city. While this is undoubtedly a good thing too, we can do this for our own sake and the sake of our children. No premier city should suffer the level of flooding problems we have.