The sea as an endless cesspool
JOSELITA, 35, said she grew up with the foul smell of the sea and the sight of garbage on the shoreline. Now that she's married with two children, living in the same place she grew up in -- at Purok 11, Sitio Alingit in barangay Tibungco, Davao City, her environment remains the same with more people.
She is more concerned about rumors that their community is up for demolition than the stench and the garbage around.
She tends to a sarisari store they put up on the threshold of their rented space to earn a little more in addition to her husband's earnings.
Outside their house is the wooden bridge that connects the shanties of informal shoreline settlers above the sea, making it a good location for a sari-sari.
They manage she says. They can eat three times a day, and her children are in school.
"Yes we have sink and we have toilet but the water from it goes to the sea," she said.
Below, the sea water laps up the shore full of garbage and gunk.
A four-year-old girl said they do not swim there. It's too dirty. But she said, she fell into the waters once. Luckily, there were neighbors who saved her.
In Barangay 21-C Isla Verde is a Badjao village of houses on stilts and similarly dirty waters.
The beach at low tide was wrapped in faded plastic cellophanes, wrappers of consumables and torn clothes. From the look of it, it has been there for quite a while. The only things green in Isla Verde are discarded plastics and clothes.
Like that in Purok 11, houses also do not have sanitary toilets, just a hole on the floor. Open defecation is common.
No wonder that Davao City Mayor Sara Z. Duterte-Carpio described the city's beaches as "damak" (gross).
HEALTH IMPLICATION
You only need to sniff the air to know that the environment in these two inner city settlements are not good for one's health. There's garbage disposed everywhere, and then there's human waste that turn the beach into an open cesspool.
Health Assistant Secretary Dr. Abdullah Dumama Jr. said that several diseases could be acquired if one would swim in polluted waters such as this. Among these are skin infections, rashes, allergic reactions, and gastrointestinal diseases of all kinds.
“It will affect the fisheries natin yong aquatic resources will be depleted. Pangalawa, siyempre yong mga naliligo sa dagat somehow may skin infection diyan. Diarrhea also is very high,” Dumama said.
He appealed to residents to keep their surroundings clean and dispose of their garbage properly so that the sea can continue to provide for them, and their families will be at the top of their health.
“Kung pwede naman iayos natin ang pagtapon ng basura. Alamin natin na nakaapekto talaga yan sa ating karagatan, its resources siyempre makaapekto rin maliligo,” he said.
In the meantime, we can just agree with the mayor in her statement last November 6, 2017 upon accepting the First Clean Air Award given by Glean Air Philippines: "Limpyo ang atong hangin pero ang atong dagat hugaw kaayo bag-o lang mi nag-launch sa bantay dagat. Grabe kadamak ang mga tao, wrapper sa noodles, wrapper sa sachet sa shampoo, wrapper sa candy tanan, naa diha sa dagat (Our air is very clean but our coastal waters are very dirty. We just launched our Bantay Dagat. This habit is very disgusting, wrappers of noodles and candies, shampoo sachets, all kinds of garbage are in the sea)."