Manila eyes 2 water treatment plants for zoo

The Manila City government has announced plans to build two water treatment plants inside Manila Zoo which was earlier tagged by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources as a major pollutant of Manila Bay.

To fast-track the project, city administrator Jojo Alcovendaz said that the local government might do away with the bidding process.

In a phone interview on Sunday, Alcovendaz told the Inquirer that the local government hoped to build the water treatment facilities within three to four months.

“I’m taking full responsibility for this. We didn’t know that the zoo does not have its own water treatment facilities,” he said.

Emergency case

He added: “I’m looking at this as an emergency case. So maybe we will skip the protocol.”

Last week, Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu tagged the city government-operated zoo as one of the major pollutants of Manila Bay, which was set to undergo rehabilitation later this month.

During an inspection, Cimatu said that the zoo, which sits on a 5.5-hectare area, had been draining untreated sewage into one of the estuaries leading to the bay.

Estero de San Antonio Abad “registered the highest coliform level draining into the bay,” he added.