Choked by Garbage

Metro Manila is groaning with overpopulation — more than 12 million people. Its waterways – most of it are old, narrow and ill-maintained — are choked.

According to the ADB’s “Garbage Book,” a book on solid-waste management in Manila published in 2004, Metro Manila generates more than 6,700 tons of solid garbage every day. Only a small fraction of it — 720 tons — is recycled or composted. Nearly 4,500 tons are hauled into dumpsites that local governments maintain. But the rest — about 1,500 tons — end up in lakes, rivers, creeks, even in the Manila Bay, or burned openly.

Such a high volume of solid waste has proved challenging to local governments units, with some LGUs fighting over the dumping (the “not in my backyard” argument) and often with the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA), the superbody tasked to manage the capital’s garbage and traffic systems.

Equally challenging is instilling discipline among residents on how to be responsible with their garbage. The MMDA and some local governments, for instance, have launched campaigns on this but still, Metro Manila remains littered with trash, from the big ones that are dumped in street corners to the candy wrappers carelessly thrown by commuters in streets.

The capital’s garbage, needless to say, clogs its drainage system, so that a slight downpour often floods many communities – from the low-lying slums of Tondo to the poor communities of Pasig. Worse, Metro Manila has a combined septic and storm-water system so that every time it floods human waste is expelled onto the streets along with floodwater.

Blocked Waterways

Complicating this are the waterways blocked by slum dwellers. Among these are the Perdito family, who, along with 20 other families, had shanties built on the underside of the Cambridge bridge in West Kamias in Quezon City, over an estero or creek. Ondoy completely washed away those shanties so that today, Evangeline Perdito, the 37-year-old mother of six, is scavenging for scraps of wood to rebuild her home under the bridge.

Metro Manila used to have nearly 30 esteros but these are either blocked by garbage and slum dwellers or have been appropriated by commercial developments such as malls and other big structures.

The Manggahan Floodway, which was built in the ‘80s to ease the pressure of floodwater in Metro Manila, is also choked by informal settlers, fish ponds, even growths of kangkong (water spinach), the source of livelihood for many of these poor slum dwellers.

Most of the pumping stations around the metropolis that are supposed to decrease floodwater by pumping excess water into the Manila Bay are working but because the esteros and other waterways are clogged, not much water can reach these stations, so they don’t do much help.

According to the MMDA, there are more than 70,000 families in Metro Manila like the Perditos, mostly Filipinos who are forced to seek their fortunes in the capital because of the lack or absence of livelihood or jobs in the provinces. Authorities have been trying to demolish these shanties but have not been offering any viable alternatives to the families, so they return or move to another area in the capital.

Faulty Urban Planning

Exacerbating the problem is the failure by the government to implement effective plans for urban, land use as well as emergency or disaster management. It has also failed to impose the law, according to experts. This, they said, can be attributed to corruption or sheer incompetence.

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