Coastal and river clean up in Cebu City on June 19, 2021. | Photo Courtesy of Cebu City PIO
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cebu City is set to hold the 5th city-wide coastal cleanup on Saturday, September 18, 2021, in 21 major riverside and coastal areas.
Reymar Hijarra, the subcommittee chairperson for the Cebu City Coastal Management Task Force (CMTF), said that they had added new areas for the clean-up.
This includes a leg of the Kamputhaw river near the Carreta Cemetery and Blessed Sacrament Parish area. Other areas would be the usual clean-up sites such as the South Road Properties, the Tejero Creek, Lahug River, Guadalupe River, and others.
The areas that will be included in the clean-up are enumerated below:
The coastal cleanup is scheduled quarterly every year in the hopes to increase awareness in the preservation of the major waterways in the city as well as remove as much garbage as possible from these waterways.
This Saturday, the Ocean Conservancy group will be helping the city, a first for the project that an international conservation group will be joining the activity.
Hijarra said the private organizations, the barangays, and the city government would still be volunteering personnel for the clean-up just like before.
The Department of Engineering and Public Works (DEPW) will be lending heavy equipment like backhoes to be deployed in river mouths and areas where the garbage has accumulated deep into the riverbed or seabed.
Volunteer divers will also be helping at the South Road Properties (SRP) offshore to monitor the coral reef and marine life in the area.
The city government hopes that volunteers will register for the clean-up as the city government will need the hand. The CMFT expects at least 3,000 volunteers.
Hijarra notes that volunteers must maintain the health protocols during the clean-up such as wearing masks and face shields. They must also bring their own sacks, gloves, and garbage picks.
Vice Mayor Michael Rama said there was a necessity to continue the coastal clean-up even if the city continued to be in a pandemic.
He said that this clean-ups would help in the general health of the city, which would be essential in fighting COVID-19.
“Dapat manglimpyo ta, pero bag-o ta manglimpyo, magpabakuna ta,” he said.
(We should clean up but before that we should be vaccinated.)
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