[ Manila Bulletin Online ] June 17, 2008
Melody M. Aguiba
A Manila Bay restoration program is calling for the 50 percent reduction of raw sewage and untreated waste water discharge into the bay along with a program increasing by 80 percent the bay’s forest cover.
A Manila Bay Coastal Strategy (MBCS) is also advocating the implementation of a water demand management program and the increase of water supply coverage distribution by 50 percent in Manila Bay Areas (MBA) with unsustainable groundwater extraction.
The MBCS aims to achieve these goals by 2015.
However, the program reported under the Manila Bay Area Environmental Atlas which was funded by the Partnerships in Environmental Management for the Seas of East Asia (PEMSEA) also has earlier targets.
By 2008, a multi-sectoral partnership on Manila Bay Environmental Management Project will have developed a natural hazards contingency, preparedness, and quick response system specially in light of previous oil spills that caused pollution in the bay.
It will also have developed by this year a toxic and hazardous waste management.
An extensive facelift is being carried out in the bay by different government agencies led by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) as the bay has been subject to overexploitation of resources, population pressures, and environmentally-destructive industrial development.
Since 1993, a presidential task force on Manila Bay has come up with a rehabilitation program. In 2006, a Manila Bay Coordinating Committee (MBCC) has started coordination work for implementing a coastal restoration program.
By 2010, an integrated coastal area and river basin management program covering 100 percent of the Manila Bay region should have been implemented.
Other 2010 targets are to mobilize 50 percent of coastal communities to participate in the MBCS and increase by at least 75 percent the number of local government units (LGU) that will implement and invest in environmental programs for the bay together with the private sector.
Illegal settlers should be eliminated by 25 percent. Such settlers also include business establishments and structures along the coast lines and waterways, and they should be prevented from returning to the area.
A "no net loss" policy should also be in place for existing mangroves, mudflats, shorelines, beaches, and sandy shores.
Important too are historical sites in a place considered a front line of Philippine culture.
"The goal is to formulate a restoration and maintenance program for important cultural, historical, religious, architectural, and archaeological landmarks and unique geological sites within the MBA by 2010," according to the atlas also supported by the United Nation Development Programme and International Maritime Organization Regional Programme.
PEMSEA Regional Director Raphael P.M. Lotilla said PEMSEA has already spearheaded a zoning program for neighboring coastal areas of Manila Bay particularly the Bataan coasts in order to provide for appropriate natural resources use in the closely linked watersheds.
By 2012, participants in the MBCS should have implemented an integrated land and sea use plant and zoning scheme for MBA.
Further goals are set for the increased productivity of fishery resources within the MBA by 2020 so that fish production will achieve a maximum efficiency yield.
Integrated coastal management (ICM) is hoped to be carried out in all coastal provinces affecting MBA which includes three provinces (Bataan, Cavite, Batangas) as a sustainable development strategy mandated under Executive Order 533.
Environmental authorities also considers that the Manila Bay-Pasig RiverLaguna de Bay watersheds all have to maintain an ICM
The program is anticipating that the legislature will ratify the International Convention on Oil Pollution Prevention Response and Cooperation (OPRC).
_______________________________________________________________________
