Caraganons join in a massive river cleanup
By
Venus L. Garcia
BUTUAN
CITY, Feb. 19 (PIA) - Volunteers from private and government sectors,
including the students from the entire region, flocked at the identified sites
through a solidarity walk to join the region-wide simultaneous River Clean-Up
activity spearheaded by the Department of Environment and Natural
Resources-Caraga.
There,
they started collecting piles of trash and overflowing man-made marine debris.
These
have made some of the creeks and rivers in Caraga region appeared to be a
garbage dumpsite due to improper practice of waste disposal among the locals.
“My
group is glad to be part of this noteworthy undertaking. We are doing this
wholeheartedly for our environment and the people because we believe that a
healthy environment starts with a clean surroundings,” said Job Marfa of the
Karancho, Inc.
DENR
Caraga regional director lawyer Felix Alicer said the activity is in compliance
with the directive of Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu after seeing an
outstanding outcome of the rehabilitation done in Boracay, and currently, in
Manila Bay.
“The
value of this exercise is the message that it carries that we wanted to
emphasize to the residents living close to the creeks and rivers, that it is
also their responsibility to manage the solid waste. It is not only the
responsibility of the DENR, local government units (LGUs) and government
agencies but it would take the whole community to address the problem on solid
waste,” Alicer said.
Alicer
added that they will do an assessment and determine the pollution sources
within the community in order to implement specific course of action to address
the problem.
He also encouraged the public to
practice and apply proper solid waste management. (VLG/PIA-Caraga)
