(Continued from yesterday)
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOAL (SDG) number 14 is about “Life below water”. The specifics may not also be spelled out in this goal, but it also very clear that the bottom line of this goal is to be able to conserve or preserve all life forms below the water, and restoring what may have been lost already. SDG number 15 is about “Life on land”. Just like SDG number 14, the bottom line is to conserve, preserve or restore all life forms on land.
It goes without saying that in order to conserve or preserve all life forms below the water, we must first clean the river itself. The good news is that the Pasig River Rehabilitation Commission (PRRC) has already set a goal to restore river water quality to “Class C” level; although it seems that they have not set a clear deadline for that.
Although that goal is very challenging, it is not at all impossible. Even with all the apparent optimism, it appears that they still have a long way to go, because the Pasig River was declared biologically dead in the 1990s.
Being biologically dead, there is no alternative but to restore the Pasig River to its original state, so that once again, it could support and sustain life below the water, in compliance with SDG number 14.
Although the PRRC could have set a higher goal, it is a realistic goal and it is already a good start. Obviously, the “Class C” level does not mean that it is already drinkable, but that is good enough, for as long as the fish could already come back. Once it is restored, it would already be a happy problem to conserve and preserve it for the future generations.
Starting this month, the Pasig River Ferry charter service will resume its operations. Hopefully, the passenger service will also resume soon, because the passenger ferry terminals along the river are still in good condition.
As it is now, the ferry rides are available to the public by way of special trips that are organized by private tour operators. As expected, some pessimists might say that it is not worth taking the ferry rides because the river is dirty and smelly.
That should not be a problem however, because the ferries are all air conditioned and are also fully enclosed. On the optimistic side however, some private operators are already organizing tours for groups that are concerned about the environment, so that they could see for themselves how dirty and smelly the river is, so that they could do something about it.
Sad to say, there are some people who think that the Laguna Lake, the Pasig River and the Manila Bay are hopelessly polluted, and there is no way to bring these water bodies back to life. The facts would prove them wrong however, because there are countless numbers of water bodies in other countries that have already been brought back from the dead.
As it is now, there are many technologies that could already be used to restore all of our dead rivers back to life, but what is lacking is our political will to make it happen. Sad to say, the conservation and preservation of our environment seems to be very low in the agenda of our politicians, but that could also change as the public clamor to do it would also grow, with the powerful combination of the mass media and the social media./PN
