MANILA, Philippines?Environment Secretary Joselito Atienza Wednesday called on local government units (LGUs) to intensify the campaign against illegal settlers on sewers and riverbanks to restore the quality of Philippine water basins.

Atienza, who inspected the Pasig River Wednesday morning with Senators Loren Legarda and Pia Cayetano, said at the Meet the Press forum that the river had "improved" vastly 10 years after rehabilitation efforts began.

But he added that LGUs must do their part.

"There are still a lot of illegal structures along the riverbanks in areas like Mandaluyong, Pasig, Taguig ... The LGUs should fulfill their mandate to really care for the environment by clearing sewers and riverbanks of illegal structures," Atienza said, adding that domestic waste accounted for 70 percent of the Pasig's pollution problem.

He also said "Tubig ay buhay, ating pagyamanin at linisin" (Water is life, let's conserve and protect it) would be the theme of this month's Earth Day celebrations.

Dying waters

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources is focusing its efforts on reviving the Philippines' dying waters, including Manila Bay and Laguna de Bay.

Atienza said both Legarda and Cayetano had pledged their support to the campaign to revitalize around 50 seriously degraded bodies of water in the country.

He said the illegal fish pens in Laguna Lake that were hampering the natural flow of water from Manila Bay would be dismantled on April 23.

No water problem

"I really believe we should remove the fish pens to liberate the water and the people ... because they also deprive ordinary fisherfolk of fishing grounds ... That contributes to poverty," he said.

Atienza said that based on DENR projections, the water supply would not be a problem this year.

"The DENR is monitoring the water supply ... we will not have a shortage. Still, we should continue saving water because more than 50 percent goes to waste," he said.

The Ecowaste Coalition has come up with measures to conserve the precious resource.

'Water Tipid Tips'

The "Water Tipid Tips" were culled from text messages received from Miss Philippines Earth 2007 Jeanne Harn, zero-waste advocate Luz Sabas, gay rights activist Danton Remoto, and ecologists from the Bangon Kalikasan Movement, Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines-National Secretariat for Social Action, Justice and Peace, Concerned Citizens against Pollution, Environmental Advocates Reaching Towards Humanity-University of Santo Tomas, Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives, Krusada sa Kalikasan, Miriam PEACE, Mother Earth Foundation, November 17 Movement and Sining Yapak.