Campaign pollution

Politicians polluting public spaces with their campaign materials are not only bad for aesthetics and the environment, they are also bad for your health.

That’s right, health.

In the second half of this year, two water treatment plants in Metro Manila had to be shut down, one for 15 hours and the other for up to 30 hours.

The reason: the plants had to be cleared of foreign contaminants consisting mostly of paint and “cosmetic” materials such as chemicals and dyes.

Certain environment officials believe the contaminants came from the rising production of tarpaulins for the 2025 midterm elections.

So it’s no joke that politicians who are now plastering their campaign materials on every available public space should be charged with littering and environmental degradation.

Last Wednesday, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) released guidelines for campaign activities, encouraging candidates to use environment-friendly and recyclable materials. Candidates and political parties must include in their campaign materials the declaration: “This material should be recycled or disposed of responsibly.”

The Comelec also reminded candidates about intellectual property rights when putting together campaign materials, such as those using music and video.

The guidelines did not address the posting at this time of campaign materials in public spaces where the display would be prohibited during the official campaign period. Since the Supreme Court has ruled that there is no such thing as premature campaigning, the Comelec has left it to local governments to get rid of such materials, based on anti-littering ordinances.

We know the problem here: in most places, local officials (along with the administration’s national candidates) lead in the posting of such materials wherever they please.

In the case of environment-unfriendly tarpaulins, however, can the Comelec itself go after the candidates following the release of those guidelines?

At this time, not yet; Comelec Chairman George Garcia told “Storycon” on One News yesterday that the poll body can take down campaign materials posted in unauthorized spaces only when the election period starts on Jan. 12.

Even when the election period starts, however, the Comelec may not be able to stop the use of tarpaulins.

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Metro Manila has enough problems with its water supply; pollution from tarpaulin production can only aggravate this.

The government, with the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System as the lead agency, is supposed to provide water sources for treatment and distribution by the private concessionaires. Since water distribution was privatized nearly three decades ago, however, there has been no significant expansion in the water supply sources, even as population and demand in the Greater Manila area kept growing.

In southern Metro Manila, Maynilad tapped Laguna de Bay to augment water from the dams. The lake, however, keeps shrinking from uncontrolled reclamation (just look at the horror that the C-6 lakeside drive has become in Taguig), fish pen proliferation and the resulting heavy siltation that has made the lake shallower.

During storms, heavy rainfall and strong winds that disturbed the lake (think of a cup of liquid being stirred) often caused turbidity in the water piped into the Maynilad service area. The problem eased only this year after additional treatment plants came onstream.

Maynilad also installed a “silt curtain” made of “geotextile” around an area of the lake tapped by its Putatan plant, along with ultrasonic algae mitigating equipment.

But such interventions can only go so far. The degradation of the lake will continue unless the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) gets serious about regulating reclamation and commercial activities in the lake.

Sources in the DENR have said lawsuits and political pressure have derailed their efforts to regulate such activities, which is classified as a multipurpose body of water. Many of the activities are reportedly operated by local politicians and military and police officials.

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Meanwhile, the fate of the Kaliwa-Kanan-Laiban dam project in the Sierra Madres, envisioned to provide sufficient water supply for Greater Manila amid the continuing population boom, is in limbo.

Implementation of the project by the government is stuck in the same myriad problems that have made foreign investors shun our country in favor of our more business-friendly neighbors.

Maynilad can’t afford to wait for the next Great Flood for badly needed additional water sources. It is currently converting even sewage water (after treatment in a sewage treatment plant) into drinking water. This “New Water” requires two more layers of treatment, making the process more expensive, but the recycling is of course eco-friendly.

The first New Water treatment plant of Maynilad began operations in Parañaque. So what we get from our taps in The STAR office is New Water.

Singapore has invested heavily in waste water recycling to reduce its dependence on neighboring Malaysia for its potable water requirements, although there is reportedly public resistance to the use of recycled sewage water for drinking straight from the tap. Singapore also gets potable water from desalination of sea water, but this is usually more expensive than waste water recycling.

For drinking in our Parañaque office, we use water dispensers that require regular loading with filtered bottled water, so we don’t drink water directly from the taps. But so far, we’ve had no complaints about New Water, which we use mainly for sanitation and in the cafeterias. There’s no turbidity in the water or unusual odor or other indications of contamination.

The operations have been deemed successful enough for Maynilad to plan more New Water treatment facilities.

Unless new water sources come onstream, however, Metro Manila will face a water crisis in the not-too-distant future. And what’s available could be contaminated periodically by election campaign junk.