Marilao River rehab wasted–Greenpeace

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO—Efforts by national agencies and the local government to rescue the Marilao River system (MRS) in Bulacan are apparently deficient because the use and discharge of hazardous chemicals and domestic wastes into the river persist, according to the environmental group, Greenpeace.

The MRS is one of eight case studies that Greenpeace presented in its 80-page report titled “Hidden Consequences.” Also under the spotlight are the Yangtze River in China, Chao Phraya in Thailand and Neva in Russia. Four more rivers in America and Europe are presented for their respective cleanup programs.

The MRS (also called the Marilao-Meycauayan-Obando River) starts from the uplands of Rizal, snakes through Caloocan City and flows into Bulacan through the cities of San Jose del Monte and Meycauayan, and the towns of Sta. Maria, Marilao and Obando before it empties to the Manila Bay.

The Bocaue River merges with the river system in Marilao, according to the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

Highly polluted

The nonprofit environmental facility, Blacksmith Institute, labeled the MRS as one of the world’s 30 dirtiest rivers in 2008, after confirming that its waters contained “high levels of pollution” from wastes coming from leather tanneries, gold refineries and dumps.

Reviewing Blacksmith’s findings, the Greenpeace report states that pollution has reached the river’s groundwater, and the extent of manganese, zinc, nickel and cadmium there has made it undrinkable. Shellfish and freshwater fish showed evidence of metal contamination, exceeding limits for human consumption in some cases.

Greenpeace found the 10-year Water Quality Management Area program—said to be the first in the country—to be limited.

“However, while this plan covers the cleanup of the existing contamination and waste water treatment for ongoing discharges, it contains very few concrete measures to prevent future contamination by addressing the problem at source and eliminating the actual use of hazardous chemicals,” the report says.

“As the plan stands at the moment, it is questionable whether it will be able to fully deliver on its goal of achieving complete control over the source of the pollution.”

Campaigns

Lormelyn Claudio, EMB director in Central Luzon, said the agency, provincial and local government and several other government offices have joined efforts to conduct information campaign, hold regular cleanup drives, enforce solid waste management and closure of illegal dumpsites and inventory of sources of heavy metals.

The program, she said, needs P10.2 billion, which remained unfunded to date. The EMB, as a secretariat, uses some of the agency’s funds in the meantime. The provincial and local governments share counterpart funds, she said.

The cleanup cost, Greenpeace said, would be massive on the part of the Bulacan government but prohibitive for the national government.

Greenpeace said “authorities are rightly focusing on controlling the sources of pollution, yet their proposed plan will not completely eliminate the use and discharge of hazardous chemicals, such as heavy metals.”

To protect the health and livelihood of the more than one million people living around it, Greenpeace urged the government to set up a proper pollutant disclosure system through which the public could easily access a wide range of pollution data.

Advocates could also use the system to immediately establish a list of hazardous chemicals and create an action plan to reduce, restrict and ultimately eliminate the discharges of toxic chemicals.

Pineapple enzyme

The government hasn’t given up.

In Marilao, Bulacan, a tropical fruit enzyme has been introduced to the MRS by a Japanese firm that  helps in the cleanup.

Minaki Advance Co. Ltd., which is based in Hiroshima, Japan, has been leading the rehabilitation of Marilao River since December 2010.

The firm’s treatment process requires enzyme extracted from the pineapple, said Mitsuo Hirayama, Minaki project engineer. Tonette Orejas, with a report from Carmela Reyes-Estrope, Inquirer Central Luzon