Cebu City collects 163 tons of garbage in massive coastal clean-up

The coastal clean-up in Cebu City resulted to 163.15 tons of garbage collected. | Contributed photo

CEBU CITY, Philippines — The massive coastal clean-up in Cebu City resulted to hundreds of tons of garbage collected in the eight sites where the city government and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in Central Visayas (DENR-7) worked together.

Department of Public Services head, Lawyer Jigo Dacua, said that after more than six hours of clean-up, the garbage collected filled 163 garbage trucks or a total of 163.15 tons. Most of the garbage collected were silt, plastic bags, and plastic bottles.

The city government departments were assigned in various areas at the mouths of rivers in Lahug, Bulacao, Guadalupe, and Kinalumsan; creeks — Mahiga and Tejero; and the coastal sites of Barangay Mambaling and the South Road Properties (SRP).

Vice Mayor Michael Rama, who initiated the project, said that the clean-up today in line with the celebration of the International Coastal Clean-Up Day is simply the start of a long process of rehabilitation of the rivers and waterways.

Read: In Photos: Cebu City celebrates International Coastal Clean-up Day

“The clean-up is just the start of the many more activities we will do to clean the environment because we need to clean our city so that our future generation will have something to enjoy,” he said.

He said that the real challenge for the city is to start sustainable activities that will not only clean up the rivers, but would also stop people from polluting the rivers anymore.

The vice mayor wants the massive clean-up to be done quarterly as a means to remind the people that coastal clean-ups is not a once-a-year kind of activity, it is a continuous effort.

Mayor Edgardo Labella assured that maintaining the cleanliness of the environment will a priority under his administration and the departments are working to continuously rehabilitate the rivers in the city

“As I look at the sea, I saw the sun rising and then there is a saying in the vernacular nga inig ilog kuno sa kahayag sa kangitngit musiak ang banagbanag and that banagbanag is the hope for a better and cleaner City of Cebu,” he said./dbs