IN PREPARATION for the wet season and the La Niña phenomenon, the Cebu City Environment and Natural Resources Office (Cenro) invites the general public to join the City Government in the 16th Citywide Cleanup Challenge on June 22, 2024.
In a press conference at the Cebu City Sports Center on Tuesday, May 28, Cenro head Reymar Hijara said the upcoming activity will not only involve barangay officials and employees under the 80 barangays but also members of the community.
The synchronized cleanup drive, which will start at 6 a.m., will be held at rivers and waterways in the mountains and coastal areas.
Following a coordination meeting with representatives from the 80 barangays last May 23, Hijara said barangay officials were tasked to organize a team of participants.
The participants will be composed of households within their community that will help the City remove garbage and solid waste from rivers and waterways.
Hijara said the City will be implementing strict segregation of recyclable and non-recyclable materials.
“Ang katuoyan nato nga dili lang ang pagpanglimpyo kundi atong masukod kung unsa ang gipanglabay nga basura sa atong environment kay diha basehan kung unsa ang atong inisyatibo, unsa ang atong programa, ug unsa nga mga ordinansa nga kinahanglan buhaton,” Hijara said.
(Our goal is not just cleaning but also to determine what is thrown in the river because we will use this as basis to come up with initiatives, programs and ordinances to address the problem.)
“Ato i-encourage og pag-ayo nga kada tagbalay kay mo-participate sa atong cleanup,” he said.
(We will also encourage households to participate in the cleanup.)
Hijara admitted that during previous cleanup drives, some participants only took photos but did not actually pick up any garbage.
This time, he said they will be required to submit a sack of segregated garbage before their attendance can be checked. They will be monitored through a QR code that will be sent to their smartphones.
“We want to avoid what happened in the past. It doesn’t really make sense to attend a cleanup drive and not do any cleaning up and instead just take photos,” he said in a mix of Cebuano
and English.
Hijara said they also expect to collect more garbage, especially since some rivers and waterways have dried up because of the prolonged drought brought about by the El Niño phenomenon.
He said waste that was stuck on the riverbed would now be easy to collect.
He also said this is the first time that they will be segregating collected waste.
In the past, he said, all the garbage they removed and collected was disposed of directly into the landfills.
“Cebu City is on its way to strictly implementing “no segregation, no collection.” Segregation at source is the key to managing the city’s garbage,” he said in a mix of Cebuano and English.
During the press conference, Hijara was joined by Bernard Marasigan, chairman of the Coastline Management Board, and Jonalyn Gabito of the Management Information and Computer Services.
During the 15th Cebu City Wide Cleanup Drive last March 16, Cenro collected around 87 tons of solid waste, 10 tons less than the garbage it collected in the same period the year before. / EHP