18 firms to clean up Butuanon River

EIGHTEEN companies and businesses along a 23-kilometer stretch of the Butuanon River in Mandaue City yesterday signed an agreement with the city government and schools to clean up the river and report those who dump garbage into it.

The signing launched the “Adopt a River or Estero” program with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

Under the program, those who throw garbage into the river will be apprehended, said Rachel Ybañez of the DENR information, education and communication division.

Ybañez said people will not learn if they are not arrested for committing violations.

A house-to-house information campaign about the cleanup will  be held this Sept. 24 from 6:30 a.m. to  10:30 a.m.

Ybañez said they have been monitoring the Butuanon River to preserve its beauty and keep it clean.

“The Butuanon River now smells very bad. All kinds of garbage get mixed in the water and it all flows to the  Mactan Channel,” Ybañez  said.

She added that some houses near the river don’t have septic tanks and just dump toilet waste into the river.

Some companies surrounding Butuanon also throw untreated waste into the river, said engineer Amancio Dongcoy, DENR Solid Waste Management coordinator.

The companies and businesses who will participate in the cleanup program are as follows:

Socor Construction Corp., Maritrans Recycler Inc., Metro Colon, Viscal Foundation, Green Coil Industries, Petron Corp., Dedon Manufacturing Inc., San Miguel Yamamura Packaging Corp., Ginebra San Miguel Inc., Cenapro Chemical Corp., D’RBG Marine Ex-Import, Monde Nissin Corp., Cebu Premier Industrial Gases Corp. and Nutri Asia Inc. and  ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp.

The  Department of Education Mandaue City Division and University of Cebu Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu  will also join the cleanup.