MMDA cleanup yields 169 truckloads of trash

Even officials of the clearing team of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) were surprised at the amount of garbage that was being thrown into waterways after it hauled away 169 truckloads of trash in a two-week-long massive cleanup campaign, officials said Sunday.

Since May 28, at least 500 workers of the agency have been declogging and desilting waterways and estuaries in the metropolis. In the first nine days of the cleanup drive to reduce the risk of flooding with the start of the rainy season, the MMDA focused on Manila and Caloocan.

Engr. Maxima Quiambao, MMDA flood control chief, said that during the period, the clearing teams collected enough trash to fill up 169 trucks from 12 estuaries.

“The waste clogging the waterways include different sorts of things, mostly made of plastic,” Quiambao said during the agency’s radio program on Sunday.

According to her, the daily average volume of waste collected by the MMDA reaches between 30 and 34 truckloads.

In an earlier interview, MMDA Chairman Francis Tolentino said the agency wanted to complete the cleanup of 273 heavily clogged estuaries by June 14.

Waste coming from settlers living near the waterways contribute to the perennial problem of flooding as the trash limits the capacity of the waterways to handle the amount of rainwater.

Quiambao, meanwhile, appealed to residents to stop treating waterways as dumps.

“Please don’t give us the excuse that you can throw your garbage since the government is picking it up,” she said.