Cleanup drives yield tons of garbage in tourist spots

Lapu-Lapu/Malapascua

A cleanup drive initiated by the Lapu-Lapu City government yielded around 20 tons of garbage.

The cleanup drive, dubbed as “Limpyo Lapu-Lapu 2018” involved all of the city’s 30 barangays and was participated in by government employees and teams from the Philippine Air Force (PAF), Philippine Navy (PN), Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP), Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) and community volunteers.

Mayor Paz Radaza went around the coastal areas of mainland Lapu-Lapu City to check and monitor the cleanup drive.

“Kini usa sa mga lakang nga gibuhat sa syudad aron sa pag mintinar sa kalimpyo sa atong mga kabaybayonan ug paglikay sa pagdaghan sa fecal coliforms sa dagat nga maoy hinungdan nga ma contaminated,” said Mayor Paz Radaza. (The city is doing this to maintain cleanliness in our shores and prevent the sea from being contaminated by fecal coliform.)

The mayor said that being the number one tourist destination in Central Visayas, they have to maintain the ranking as it is tourism that drives the economy of the city.

“We have to make sure that Lapu-Lapu is a place where tourist can relax, breath fresh air from the sea and let them feel that they are just home away from home,” said Radaza.

Malapascua

Meantime, in Malapascua Island, another tourist attraction, 7.6 tons of garbage was collected in a cleanup drive last April 26.

The island located in northern Cebu is famous for its diving spots, pristine white sand beaches and thresher sharks surrounding the area.

French national Axelle Jorcin, executive director of People and the Sea, a non-government organization (NGO) based in Daanbatayan town, said at least 350 volunteers, both locals and foreign nationals, helped in addressing the solid waste problem of the island.

“Part of this effort was to segregate and categorize the waste, to help find relevant solutions to the management of waste on the island,” Jorcin said in a statement sent to Cebu Daily News.

People and the Sea, a community-driven marine conservation, is actively working with locals and business sectors on the island in solving environmental concerns, such as solid waste management problem in Malapascua Island.

“We wanted to give something back and provide long term support to this warm, welcoming community,” she said.
Jorcin said this was their biggest clean-up yet.

Most of the garbage were from the heaps of trash from the island’s household areas. The tons of garbage were then transported to the mainland for proper waste disposal.

Daanbantayan Mayor Vicente Loot admitted that Malapascua Island, which has about 2016 households or at least 6 thousand population, has no sanitary landfill.

He said they have yet to secure a lot for a recycling and composting facility in the island.

“It will now become a regular habit in Malapascua as we vowed, as early as in Sept. 2016, not to make Malapascua as another Boracay,” Loot said in a text message.

An estimated 1,000 participants troop mostly the coastal areas and finished the two-hour clean-up which started at 6:00 in the morning.

Most garbage collected from the shorelines were plastic materials which are recyclables.

Radaza said, people just need to be disciplined to lessen garbage thrown into the sea and everywhere.

She said, she will also increase the number of eco-wardens and how a reward system can encourage them to apprehend more irresponsible people throwing trash or garbage anywhere.