Manila Bay rehab enters mechanized phase

MEN AND MACHINES After an army of garbage-pickers descended on the Manila Bay coastline recently, a fleet of heavy equipment arrived on Tuesday for a follow-up job. The fleet includes amphibious excavators, dump trucks and a debris segregator that will operate 16 hours a day to rid the bay of underwater trash in the next six weeks. —Marianne Bermudez

The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) on Tuesday began massive dredging to remove more than 225,000 cubic meters of silt and garbage from a portion of Manila Bay.

Public Works Secretary Mark Villar said 28 heavy equipment and about 50 personnel would be deployed to work 16 hours daily for six days a week in a 1.5-kilometer stretch of Manila Bay, from Manila Yacht Club to the US Embassy.

He said the aim was to desilt an area of around 150 meters from the shoreline.

“Excavation will be the major mechanism for the removal of the accumulated pollutants in Manila Bay,” Villar said.

Under the DPWH’s program, work on the bay will be divided into five sections, each lasting up to 120 days. To determine adjustments to be made in their work, Villar said that depth measurement surveys and water quality tests would be done regularly.

Apart from dredging, the DPWH, along with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Metropolitan Manila Development Authority and the Philippine Coast Guard, will also clean up and unclog tributaries and drainage canals in Manila that are choked up with garbage that end up in the bay.