Every day scenes at the beach during clean-up activities. - MWBuzzpics by AP HERNANDEZ
By ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ
THE clean-up of the Parang
beach has been intensified.
On Saturday, March 29, the
Mambulao local government launched a sustained effort to rid the beach of
rubbish and other debris.
Mayor Ricarte “Dong” Padilla
told MWBuzz since the clean-up, about 3,000 bags sacks of rubbish have been
collected and brought to the municipal dump site near Larap.
The beach rubbish assault
involved the local government and residents along the beach.
To attract more people to
participate, Padilla offered to pay P5 for every sack of rubbish collected.
He also offered to convert
every bag of rubbish into points which could be exchanged with school materials
such as notebooks, writing pads, paper, pencils and ball pens, among others.
The campaign is using a
tractor-pay loader to dig up debris that have been embedded in the sand for
years.
At first a carabao was used
to drag a heavy metal rake across the beach to unearth buried rubbish, but was
stopped as the beast had a hard time doing it.
Artem Andaya, a town
councillor tasked to oversee the beach rehab, told MWBuzz it was heartening to
see the villagers spend time to clean the beach.
“The beach residents are now
aware on the need to protect the shore from pollution because it would be them to
benefit later.”
Andaya, who requested to be
relieved of other council duties, comes to the beach every day to supervise the
collection of garbage that included plastic and paper materials, diapers, sanitary napkins and
many other household rubbish.
The cleaning of the beach is
carried out every day.
“It could take another year
to retrieve all the rubbish buried in the sand and mud,” he said.
The other problems persist,
Andaya said.
“Coastal barangays such as
Malapayungan, Calero, Sta Milagrosa, Pag-asa, Osmena continue to dump their
rubbish into the bay.”
He said bulk of the rubbish
they would retrieve every day from the bay water were diapers and plastic
materials.
So far, the stretch of the
sand from the Larap road to the mouth of the mangrove river at South
Poblacion-Parang looks neat, pleasing those who happened to walk the beach.
“Maganda nang tingnan ang
beach natin,” a recent visitor said.
Padilla said another source
of rubbish that ended up in the bay were the “pakatan” households in Plaridel
and Parang sitting on the river banks.
He said: Nilagyan po naming
ng lambat ang tapat ng tulay ng Parang.
“Paghibas po ng dagat, mga
basurang galing po sa pakatan households ay nahuhuli ng lambat na ito.
“Alam po ba ninyo ang karaniwang
nakukuha naming --- dumi ng tao …”
He said that rubbish
including human wastes is retrieved every day, adding that there is somebody
assigned to do the retrieving job.
“Kaya kawawa naman po ang
taong gumamagawa nito dahil masyado siyang na-e expose sa dumi (ng tao)…”
A resident has confirmed
Padilla’s observation.
She said: Iyan pong mga tubo
(pipes) ng toilet nila ay dumederetso sa tubig at doon nahuhulog and dumi …”
Two households in “pakatan”
have asked MWBuzz to help them relay to Padilla their urgent need to have a
public toilet in their area.
“Matagal na po naming
inilapit ito kay Baranggay Parang Chairman Willie Relao na sana lagyan ng
public toilet dito po sa lugar namin, pero hanggang ngayon wala pong aksyon.
“Tuwing babanggitin po naming
ito sa kanya, pangisi-ngisi lang po ito,” they said, adding that the “pakatan”
public toilet project was among those that he promised to act on.
Padilla said he has laid
down a plan to resolve this and it will be carried out soon.
Although he described the
plan to MWBuzz in details, he requested the online newsletter not to report it
yet.
For feedback, email: ahernandez@thenational.com.pg and alfredophernandez@y7mail.com
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