‘ALARMING’ WASTE HAUL: Jaro River cleanup could fish 100 tons of trash

By Rjay Zuriaga Castor

The Iloilo City government has raised the alarm over the volume of garbage recovered from the Jaro River, projecting that more than 100 tons of waste could be collected by the end of an ongoing cleanup campaign.

General Services Office head Neil Ravena said the large amount of waste retrieved from the river indicates years of accumulated pollution in the waterway.

“The volume of the waste we collected is alarming. It is really large. If we gathered everything, maybe we could even reach 100 tons of waste,” he said on Tuesday, June 2.

The cleanup drive, launched on May 19, covers portions of the Jaro River running through barangays in the Jaro and La Paz districts.

The campaign forms part of “Oplan Kontra Baha,” a flood-mitigation program the city government is carrying out with the Department of Labor and Employment and the Department of Public Works and Highways to clear and de-clog waterways ahead of the rainy season.

Now in its third week, the operation is about 75 percent complete and has yielded 74 tons of waste, Ravena said.

Most of the recovered materials were single-use plastics.

Ravena said the volume suggests much of the garbage had remained in the river for a long period, posing environmental and public health risks.

He warned that garbage left in waterways eventually reaches coastal areas through tidal movement, where plastics can break down into microplastics that may be ingested by marine life and enter the human food chain.

“It affects the river and can eventually reach the ocean because of high and low tides. These can become microplastics, be eaten by fish, and eventually be consumed by humans. That is what we are trying to prevent,” he said.

The cleanup teams have completed recovery operations in Barangays Ingore, Ticud, and parts of Baldoza.

Ravena said the operation is now moving upstream toward Tabuc Suba, the boundary between Jaro and La Paz.

“We will first install waste traps in that boundary in La Paz and Jaro so that we can identify which district contributes the most,” he said.

The city plans to install waste traps along the upstream and downstream sections of seven barangays: Banuyao, Baldoza, Caingin, Hinactacan, Tabuc Suba, Ingore, and Ticud.

The traps will help authorities pinpoint areas where illegal dumping persists, Ravena said.

“Hopefully, there will be no disposal because we are trying our best to clean the waterway, and we can actually see traces of those who dispose of waste there,” he said.

Intermittent rains remain a major challenge, hampering the transport of collected waste to designated collection sites and slowing the workers’ mobility.

The initiative mobilized 70 beneficiaries from seven La Paz barangays under the Department of Labor and Employment’s Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers (TUPAD) program.

The workers will render 31 days of service at a daily wage of PHP 550, for a total of PHP 17,050 each.

Ravena said the city has put in place health and safety measures for workers, including prophylaxis to help prevent diseases and infections linked to exposure to contaminated water.

City officials have said additional waterways in the Molo and Jaro districts are being eyed for future cleanup drives once the La Paz operations conclude.