Part One
GOVERNMENT weather-watchers have predicted the months of July to September as “the peak of the Southwest monsoon season, or habagat, when thunderstorms and typhoons are at its maximum.”
But the first onslaught of heavy rains and floods in August did not fill with dread the likes of Christopher Ilumin and the community residents surrounding Lingunan Creek in Valenzuela.
This, despite the fact that prolonged and severe flooding commonly occur in streets and areas near creeks and rivers as a result of accumulated garbage and waste in these water inlets, or esteros.
“We were prepared, we had a plan. And our flood-preparedness program included the regular clean-up of Lingunan Creek,” said Ilumin, general manager of March Resources Manufacturing Corp., an automotive paint firm.
Passing through three barangays in Valenzuela—villages of Lingunan, Veinte Reales and Canumay West—Lingunan Creek flows upstream to Meycauayan River before draining into the Pasig River.
This natural creek is 2 kilometers in length and 12 meters wide. It is surrounded by houses of middle-class families and informal settlers, as well as commercial and industrial establishments. Of the three communities, the village of Lingunan is the lowest point downstream and, hence, the most flood-prone, Ilumin said pointing to the spot where all the water in the upstream barangays empty in Lingunan.
‘PPP’
PREPARING for floods started happening in Lingunan four years ago.
In 2012 the Environmental Management Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR-EMB) introduced the “Adopt-an-Estero/Water Body program” (AEWBP) in the area.
DENR officials said the Adopt-an-Estero Program functioned like a “public-private partnership.” It enjoined individual companies and corporations to help in the rehabilitation of a water inlet near their plants, in partnership with the government and the estero’s surrounding communities.
“We send letters to prospective donor [private-sector] partners inviting them to adopt an estero. Several donor partners are invited, whoever is interested,” Maria Fe Rubio of the EMB-National Capital Region (NCR) said in response to a written query.
According to Rubio, the EMB sets an appointment and go to the establishment to discuss the program.
“They [company officials] can choose the estero or water body they want to adopt,” she explained. “The priority is the estero near the establishment of the donor partners so that communication with the LGUs [local government units] and communities is easy.”
Rubio said the Adopt-an-Estero program aims to institutionalize community development, devise a livelihood program for the community and establish a Material Recovery Facility (MRF) in the barangay. Likewise, she said the program also seeks to develop good partnership between the private sector, the communities concerned and national government agencies, as well as non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
Partners
ON August 17, 2012, March Resources Manufacturing Corp. joined the Adopt-an-Estero program. Company executives, local government officials and community leaders representing 3,000 Lingunan households signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) to clean and declog Lingunan Creek of garbage, waste and other obstructions.
Other partner-institutions that were signatories to the MOA included the Valenzuela City government, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA), the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).
Rubio mentioned that Valenzuela LGUs are very active in helping and assisting all donor partners in Valenzuela.
“They provide assistance in dredging, they have backhoe to easily cleanup, while the MMDA provide boats to clean high depth esteros.”
“Our company, as the private partner of Lingunan Creek, provide the other cleanup materials needed by the community, whose residents function as volunteers,” Ilumin said.
He added that their company is primarily responsible for decongesting the creek of garbage through surface cleanup and in introducing interventions along the riverbanks, such as planting of bamboo and creation or greening of linear parks.
Community effort
ILUMIN gives credit to all the people involved in the project.
“But of course, we cannot do all these alone,” Ilumin said, adding that March Resources has cleaned Lingunan Creek even before the Adopt-an-Estero program. “The task has become easier now that our company, an entire community and the government are coordinating and taking part in the effort.”
Rubio explained that the EMB is responsible for the regular monitoring of the Lingunan Creek’s water quality. According to her, there has been an 8.65-percent to 44-percent improvement on the biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) of the different stations of Lingunan Creek. The BOD is an indicator of water quality. It is the amount of dissolved oxygen needed by aerobic biological organisms to break down organic material in water.
Traps
TO further improve Lingunan Creek’s water quality, trash traps have been put up to catch garbage and debris.
“All [EMB-NCR] employees—155 in all—are involved, especially during the cleanups,” Rubio said. “Together with the donor partners, LGUs, barangays traversing the adopted water bodies, the DPWH and the MMDA, we conduct cleanups” every quarter.
Rubio added that March Resources is one of 44 donor partners that adopted 37 esteros or water inlets in the NCR. All these water bodies are cleaned up simultaneously on the following months: March, in celebration of World Water Day; June, in time for the Environmental Month; September, International Coastal Cleanup; and November, which is designated as Environmental Awareness month.
She also said an MRF was established in Barangay Lingunan, where residents segregate in designated trash drums the perishable waste and the nonperishable garbage.
An MRF is a building or compound where wastes are segregated and processed for possible resale to end-users. The first modern MRF in the US is that of the Resource Recovery Systems Inc.
Sustainability
ILUMIN recounted that a community-based environmental education campaign was mounted by March Resources, the EMB and barangay officials, so residents can learn the advantage of having clean waterways.
The education materials also showed how this level of cleanliness can be attained through solid-waste management, he added. Rubio said the government holds information and education campaigns that she said are essential in sustaining the momentum of the Adopt-an-Estero program.
“We must give recognition to communities to boost their enthusiasm,” she said, adding that, “Proper coordination and communication with the stakeholders, donor partners, government institutions, barangays and communities residing near the estero are but some of the lessons learned these past four years.”
Ebbing
AT the height of Typhoon Ondoy (international code name Ketsana), the flood that swamped Lingunan reached the roofs of houses, Ilumin recalled. But in August, during the intense monsoon downpours, the water rose to only four feet.
Illumin also said that, today, it only took an hour for floodwater to recede, unlike during Ondoy in 2009 when it took five hours to a day.
“We informed our community about the emergency plan even before the floods came,” he said. “We had standby rescue teams [Samahang Kabataan Watchers] who carried the relief goods to the affected families.” Nonetheless, Ilumin said they also prepared boats for rescue operations “just in case the floodwaters continue to rise.” He added that two probable reasons the floodwaters subsided within the hour and reached only up to 4 feet in height was because of their “continuous implementation of regular cleaups and their tree-planting program.” To be continued
Next: The Tullahan River experience
Image credits: Nonie Reyes