The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) will look into the reported discoloration of the waters of Manila Bay last week once the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) over Luzon is lifted by Malacañang.
Environment Secretary Roy A. Cimatu, acting on complaints reaching his office, conducted a site inspection along Roxas Boulevard on March 28.
Last week, a netizen uploaded a video of the historic bay with turquoise blue waters in the social-media platform Facebook after noticing the change of its color.
Cause-oriented groups led by the Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) have called for a thorough investigation into the phenomenon.
Pamalakaya surmised that the waters turning turquoise means there was massive dumping of chemicals, or pollution discharge, while the entire Luzon is under partial lockdown.
Cimatu also sits as chairman of the Manila Bay Inter-Agency Task Force tasked to clean the bay dubbed as “Battle for Manila Bay.” The Manila Bay rehabilitation, which was ordered by President Duterte, is the agency’s top priority until 2022.
In ordering the investigation, Cimatu said hotels and other business establishments should be investigated, suspecting that erring companies that decided to take advantage of the partial lockdown decided to discharge their untreated wastewater leading to the unusual change of the colors of the waters of Manila Bay.
“We suspect that this sudden color change from the previous dark blue to turquoise blue is caused by the direct discharge of wastewater from the treatment plants of buildings and establishments in the vicinity,” Cimatu said in a news statement.
“We assure the public that the incident is now being investigated by the DENR to find out who is responsible for the discoloration,” said Cimatu adding that “once the investigation is completed, appropriate and immediate actions will be taken on who, or what caused the incident.”
Undersecretary for Solid Waste Management and Local Government Units Concerns Benny D. Antiporda said the investigation will be conducted as soon as ECQ is lifted.
According to Antiporda, the DENR’s hands are tied right now because the agency is currently operating under strict guidelines of the State of Public Health Emergency and Enhanced Community Quarantine over Luzon Island.
He said they are not risking the lives of DENR personnel because of the threat of Covid-19.
“Right now, we can’t use the NCR [National Capital Region] laboratory because one of our personnel was tested positive of Covid-19 that’s why we need to disinfect it first,” he said.
Antiporda said the DENR is also falling in line in requesting for disinfection of its facilities and would not want to join other establishments like hospitals requesting for disinfection. “We don’t want to join the long list of personnel who are racing to have disinfection. What we are going to do is wait for the quarantine to end. After the quarantine, we will immediately conduct the investigation,” he said.
All establishments along Manila Bay are now required to have their own sewage treatment plant, or STPs, while households need to be connected to proper sewer lines as part of the ongoing rehabilitation of Manila Bay.
Antiporda urged business establishments to come out clean and do corrective measures right away to avoid getting into deeper trouble with the authorities.
I am appealing to them to do what is necessary to correct this right now,I Antiporda said.