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ADB Helps Philippines Clean Up Pasig River

The Philippines' Pasig River -- the main waterway flowing through Metro Manila between Laguna de Bay, an inland lake, and Manila Bay -- is to be cleaned up with the help of a US$800,000 technical assistance grant from the Asian Development Bank.

The Pasig river system, including the Pasig, San Juan and Marikina rivers in greater Manila, is heavily polluted with industrial, municipal and household waste. The grant will assist a government development plan for its environmental management and rehabilitation. The current pollution level of the river is 45 percent industrial waste, 45 percent municipal wastewater and 10 percent domestic solid waste. The river's flow is subject to wide seasonal variations. The highest levels occur during the rainy season when large parts of the urban area are susceptible to flooding.

Low river flows, composed almost entirely of untreated wastewater, occur during the dry season when sections of the river system have almost no dissolved oxygen. During periods of low flow, high tides at Manila Bay reverse the normal direction of flow and polluted water drains back into Laguna lake.

The Government's long-term goal is to upgrade the Pasig River's water quality so it can sustain aquatic life and can be used for sports like boating by the year 2008.

The technical assistance will help achieve this through the preparation of an urban development plan, identification of high priority investment components, preparation of feasibility studies, and industrial and municipal waste management plans. It will build on the work of the River Rehabilitation Secretariat under the Pasig River Rehabilitation Program and other development plans. An integrated package of high-priority components for investment will be prepared for consideration by funding agencies.

The total cost of the study is US$930,000. The executing agency for the assistance will be the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

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