DREDGING ought to be just the start. If river clean-up also ends there, how soon would it be before a river needs to be dredged again? If “clean” or “alive” is the desired continuing state of a river, more than dredging is necessary.
We, Filipinos, with insignificant few exceptions, are known to lack self-discipline. Yes, even the educated, the rich, and the religious among us are bereft of self-discipline. We readily violate a disciplinary rule when nobody in authority is on hand to physically see to its observance. Generally, a forbidding physical barrier is needed to prevent us from violating rules of civilized conduct.
Take traffic gridlock. One of its principal causes is counter-flowing. Arresting dumb and stupid culprits of this maddening lack of discipline and impounding their vehicles are simply impossible to do with existing manpower resources. The only way counter-flowing can be prevented is to have a concrete, steel or island divider in the middle of the street. In streets where such physical barriers exist counter-flowing is vastly minimized.
The same is true with garbage disposal. We can dredge our rivers or our principal drainage canals all we want but as long as there is no physical structure barring people from throwing their trash directly into them, these water bodies will soon need dredging again and again.
The solution in other modern and modernizing cities of the world is simple. Both sides of their rivers or the whole easement area on either side are lined with a well-paved road. River banks are reinforced with concrete to support the road which is separated from the river by a concrete physical barrier or crash guard. In civilized countries this is enough. No steel net is needed to prevent people from dumping their trash into the river.
The cost of building a road on both sides of a river might be too much (?) for a rich city like Cebu. But we could surely afford to clear the easement zone on either side of the river by essentially relocating informal settlers and demolishing permanent structures built by irresponsible business firms or individuals. We could also, I’m sure, afford a high steel fence for the easement area of our rivers so no trash could be thrown directly into them.
Some physical barrier is an absolute necessity if our rivers are not to die. It is that simple but not that easy, for the million dollar question remains: do we have the political will to clear easement areas of formal or informal occupants and fence it off from trash-throwers?
Without a restraining physical barrier ill-disciplined Filipinos, rich and poor, educated and ignorant, will dump trash directly into the river with impunity and without compunction.