Manila Bay white-sand project worthless, waste of funds –Atienza

Buhay party-list Representative Lito Atienza on Sunday opposed the Department of Environment and Natural Resources' (DENR's) initiative to decorate the Manila Bay shoreline with white sand using crushed dolomite rocks from Cebu province.

In a statement, Atienza, who also previously served as Environment Secretary and mayor of Manila for three terms, described the DENR's move as “worthless” and "a complete waste of public funds.”

“The white sand being dumped there is just a storm surge away from getting washed out,” he said.

“No amount of pretentious face-lifting can change the fact that Manila Bay’s marine and coastal ecosystems are practically dead – because its waters have been overwhelmed by fecal coliform,” he added.

Atienza stressed a large portion of raw human sewage from households in Metro Manila still drain into the Pasig River and other waterways going to Manila Bay every day.

“Anybody who swims in the bay’s heavily contaminated waters risks exposure to waterborne pathogenic diseases, including viral and bacterial gastroenteritis, hepatitis A, dysentery, typhoid fever and all sorts of infections,” he said.

The "white sand project" is part of the operational plan for the Manila Bay Coastal Management Strategy, but Atienza said the latter is "bound to fail" because of the negligence of Manila Water and Maynilad to fulfill its obligations to catch all sewage and install wastewater treatment facilities in the areas they cover.

In 2009, as DENR chief, Atienza issued an order penalizing the two water concessionaires for violating Section 8 of the Clean Water Act of 2004 on domestic sewage collection, treatment, and disposal.

Ten years later, in August 2019, the Supreme Court imposed massive fines on Manila Water, Maynilad, and the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System for their non-compliance with the Clean Water Act, stemming from the 2009 DENR order.

Last week, Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu defended their initiative to decorate the Manila Bay shoreline with white sand using crushed dolomite rocks.

He said the effort to rehabilitate Manila Bay was in response to the mandamus issued by the Supreme Court to the government to clean up the body of water.

He added that it was not the first time that crushed dolomite rocks will be used for decorative purposes, as it was also the same material found in many resorts like in Mactan, Cebu.

Dolomite rocks can also treat the pH level of water, from acidic to alkaline, Cimatu argued. — DVM, GMA News