While heavy flooding did affect parts of San Pedro City, Laguna in the past weeks, it’s significant that residents living near the San Isidro River experienced only slight flooding.
This is partly due to an ongoing initiative by the San Miguel Corporation (SMC) to clean up waterways in and around Metro Manila.
As SMC’s “Better Rivers PH” reaches its fifth year, the business conglomerate announced that it has cleared over 500,000 metric tons of silt and solid waste along three major waterways in the province’s first district.
These include the San Isidro River, San Pedro’s primary waterway, where 417,044 tons of silt and waste material had been removed; the Biñan River in Biñan City, Laguna (87,899 tons removed); and the Tunasan River at the boundary of San Pedro City and Muntinlupa City (53,774 tons removed).
SMC Chairman and CEO Ramon S. Ang added that two more rivers in Laguna province will be included in the Better Rivers PH initiative, although he did not give additional details.
“Because of many contributing and aggravating factors, flooding continues to be a major risk for many of our cities and provinces. For San Miguel, we cannot afford to just stand by and do nothing because in the end, our economy and all of us, suffer. That’s why we’ve been working non-stop these last five years to help clean and restore our rivers,” Ang said in a press release.
Since it started in 2020, Better Rivers PH has removed around 8.5 million metric tons of silt and solid waste from 10 key waterways in and around Metro Manila.
From its early efforts to clean up the Tullahan, Pasig, and San Juan Rivers, SMC’s initiative has extended northwards to Bulacan and Pampanga, and the south, to rivers in Paranaque and Laguna.
“Through cooperation with the national and local governments and other stakeholders, we’ve now managed to increase the carrying capacities of our major rivers. But a lot still needs to be done, including in changing mindsets and discouraging the throwing of wastes in our waterways. We are committed to continue working with stakeholders and doing our part every way we can,” Ang added.
According to SMC, the initiative has helped lessen the risk of severe flooding in surrounding communities, by enabling floodwaters to be drained to Manila Bay more effectively.
The effort has also reduced foul odors coming from rivers and, in some cases, encouraged the return of fish, owing to the removal of decomposing waste and garbage from the river beds.
Fully-funded and undertaken by SMC, the program comes at no cost to government and taxpayers, and is done in close coordination with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and local government units.
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