BACOLOD City – Twenty-four professional divers retrieved underwater garbage – mostly plastics – in Sipaway Island in San Carlos City, Negros Occidental.
The “scubasureros” have been collecting trash from Negros Occidental waters every year since 2007 as part of the Environment Month celebration in the province.
This year, the Provincial Environment Management Office (PEMO) partnered with the local government of San Carlos City through the City Environment Management Office.
It chose the Dapdap area and Sitio Caimito in Barangay San Juan, Sipaway Island as the sites for the underwater garbage collection program.
The divers collected 171 plastic beverage bottles, 176 glass beverage bottles, 15 beverage cans, 137 plastic food wrappers, 18 cups and lids, 15 clothes and shoes, 52 eating utensils (cups, plates and spoons), 13 fishing lines, one light bulb, six tires, and three tarpaulins after the almost two-hour diving activity conducted in late June.
PEMO head Wilfred Ramon Peñalosa, who also joined the divers, said the activity was an “eye opener.”
“There are even candy wrappers, chip [wrappers] and bottles that date back to the ’80s and ’90s,” said Peñalosa. “It is sending a message that plastics do not really decompose. They become smaller and smaller that fishes can pick up and eat.”
Aside from the diving activity, coastal cleanups were also conducted in the province./PN
