Garbage getting fewer Clean-up data reveals

Tagbilaran City, May 13, 2011 (PIA)---ENVIRONMENT authorities said they have seen an encouraging development in the conduct of annual coastal clean up activities.

But even then, they sound the clarion call for more people’s participation in responsible waste disposal for sustainable seas during the celebration of the Month of the Ocean in May.

Speaking at the weekly Kapihan sa PIA aired live over DyTR Am, both Bohol Environment and Natural Resources Officer Nestor Canda and a Capitol based Coast Resource Management Coordinator reechoed the call in the continuing challenge to protect and sustain our seas.

Capitol environmental  management office report that the annual coastal clean up activities showed a reduction of collected garbage during clean-ups while they also noted a huge increase of volunteers and groups, said Bohol Environment Management Office (BEMO) CRM coordinator Adelfa Salutan.

The BEMO acts as the secretariat and data collection center for each coastal clean up activities and collates the collection data cards submitted by groups and individual volunteers.

Back in 1997 when the annual coastal clean-up came to be institutionalized here, volunteers reacted positively as Bohol marks the biggest number of clean-up volunteers, and coastal area covered.

The activity has since become a province-wide annual activity while continued information education communication activities focused on proper waste management spread all over the island. 

We have to be conscious about the waste we dispose and how we do that because sooner or later, it would go down with the flow of the water from the watershed areas to the rivers and down to the estuaries, affecting sea grass beds, reefs and the seas in general, said PENRO Nestor Canda. 

PENRO Canda and Salutan explained that even a casual throwing of a plastic wrapper in an upland community, by sheer law of “water seeks its own levels,” can bring the garbage down to the waterways, joining other countess household refuse clogging drainages, choking coral reefs or poisoning sea creatures.

A garbage thrown from the top of the land’s ridges in the mountains can get down to the sea and impact on the sustainability of the ocean, both stress as the celebration picks up this year’s theme: Protecting the Philippine Ocean: A Ridge to Reef Challenge.

The celebration of May as Month of the Ocean is pursuant to the Presidential proclamation No. 57, in coordination with the Bohol Coastal Resource Management Task Force (BCRMTF) member agencies, we are urging Boholanos to take on the challenge.

To spread the urgency of the need for more participation and community mobilization, the BCRMTF comes out with province-wide activities for the month-long celebration, Salutan pointed out, showing a list of activities.

Part of the upcoming activities include Bike for the Ocean fron Tagbilaran to Panglao and back on May 15 from 7:00 Am, jump-off at the Plaza Rizal; Fun Run for the Ocean from Plaza Rizal to Baluarte in Baclayon from 4:00 PM onwards and the first Bohol Dolphin Festival set May 30-31. (Rey Anthony Chiu)