Volunteerism stressed in water cleanup drive

TACLOBAN CITY – The Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) Regional Office for Eastern Visayas is asking the public to do their share in cleaning up the bodies of water in the region.

EMB Regional Director Leticia R. Maceda told Manila Bulletin is asking everyone to stop dumping garbage into coastal waters, rivers, lakes, streams and other bodies of water.

“I encourage stronger collaboration and partnership among EMB, the estero communities in Eastern Visayas and other government and non-government agencies and organizations to come together in the spirit of volunteerism and sustain the clean-up drive for our water bodies in the region,” Maceda said.

She made the appeal after EMB led thousands of volunteers during the cleanup of major waterways in Eastern Visayas last September 16, during International Coastal Cleanup Weekend, in cooperation with the ABS-CBN Lingkod Kapamilya Foundation, Inc. – Bantay Kalikasan.

Maceda said the cleanup was participated in by 5,000 volunteers from DENR field offices, the partners of EMB, local government units and national government agencies, private and civic groups, schools, barangay communities and the business sector.

In Tacloban alone, more than a thousand volunteers worked the stretch of Mangonbangon River, and the coastal areas of Panalaron, Cancabato, and San Pedro Bays.

Approximately 26 tons of segregated solid wastes were collected during the cleanup.

Maceda said EMB partners from the Adopt-an-Estero Program, a voluntary multi-stakeholder collaborative undertaking to conserve and rehabilitate bodies of water, were also tapped to spearhead their cleanup drives in their areas.

In Eastern Visayas, the campaign covered 26 coastlines and waterways, Maceda said.