Estero cleanup high on MMDA to-do list

The start of the rainy season does not mean the end of the  Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) flood control program.

In the agency’s Sunday radio talk show, MMDA Flood Control and Sewerage Management Office Director Emma Quiambao said that the agency would go on with its “Estero Blitz” program indefinitely despite an earlier announcement that it would be up to only June 6.

From April 4 until June 6, the MMDA has collected 1,159 truckloads or seven tons of trash from creeks in Metro Manila. Since then, another 200 truckloads of garbage have been gathered up, she added.

Quiambao said that most of the trash consisted of plastic, Styrofoam (polystyrene foam) and mud.

MMDA Assistant General Manager for Operations Emerson Carlos noted that they had also collected from waterways debris from construction sites and garbage thrown by food establishments.

According to Quiambao, their cleanup program will now concentrate on around 20 “lateral drains” on roads which will be cleared through manholes.

She noted that despite frequent rain showers in the past few days, the water quickly subsided in flood-prone areas such as España Boulevard in Manila and Balintawak in Quezon City due to the MMDA’s continuous drainage unclogging activities.

Quiambao also said all 54 pumping stations maintained by the MMDA were operational, with diesel requirements sufficiently met.

She noted that the trash screened out by the pumping stations usually increased during the rainy season, with each of the 20 large pumping stations yielding a truckload of garbage a day as compared to a truckload of garbage a week during summertime.

Quiambao said the MMDA had noticed that trash in waterways tended to increase whenever there was a lack of regular house-to-house garbage collection in nearby neighborhoods.

“When the garbage isn’t collected, residents would throw their trash into the river. When the garbage piled up on sidewalks aren’t collected, these would also get swept into the drainage during rains and floods,” she added.