By Minka Klaudia Tiangco

More than 800 sacks of garbage were collected in a clean-up drive at a 300-meter creek at Barangay Daanghari in Navotas City Saturday morning.

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources-National Capital Region (DENR-NCR) North Field Office gave out a kilo of rice for every sack of garbage collected by informal settler families.

Forester Olga Arzadon, deputy chief environmental officer of the DENR-NCR North Field Office, said about 50 sacks of rice were given to the participants.

Majority of the trash collected were plastic materials and household items, Arzadon said.

Various organizations, such as the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology and the Bureau of Fire Protection, also helped in the clean-up drive.

Arzadon said every month, the DENR-NCR North Field Office will be focusing on one barangay in Navotas for clean-up.

Arzadon said that for now, they are focusing on enforcement of solid waste disposal laws. But the next step will be the rehabilitation of the surrounding areas, which will include the relocation of informal settler families.

Data from the National Housing Authority (NHA) showed that out of 819 informal settler families at Barangay Daanghari, 248 have been relocated to medium-rise settlements at Camarin in North Caloocan or Bulacan.

A total of 571 informal settler families have yet to be relocated.

Arzadon said the informal settler families are okay with being relocated, but they are worried about their livelihoods and the education of their children.

Forty-six-year-old Rosemarie Reyes, who is a fish vendor and has been a resident of Barangay Daanghari for more than 30 years, said she will follow the authorities when she is asked to relocate.

She said that where she lives is unsafe and risky and that she has been repeatedly victimized by typhoons that washed away her house and by a fire that affected more than a thousand people in the community.

But Reyes said she is worried that she will lose her livelihood once she relocates because there are no nearby waterways at the settlements allotted for them in Caloocan and Bulacan.

"Kapag ang mangingisda, nilagay mo sa patag, eh di walang kabuhayan (If you put a fisherman on plains, he will have no livelihood)," she said.

However, Reyes eagerly joined the clean-up drive and collected four sacks of garbage. She said she wants to do her part in battling climate change.

"Importante po na sumali sa ganito, kasi mula sa kaunti, dumadami tayong nagaalaga (It is important to join these cleanup drives because from a few, the number of those who take care of the environment will increase)," she said.

The cleanup drives at the waterways of Navotas intensified after Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu gave the Navotas City government until the end of December to lower the fecal coliform levels at the Bangkulasi River, which was identified as one of the filthy waterways that was draining into the Manila Bay.

Before this, Arzadon said that majority of the clean-up drives in Navotas only entailed street sweeping.

"Ang river systems ng Navotas, lumalabas sa Manila Bay (The river systems of Navotas drain into the Manila Bay)," he said. "Pano kami maglilinis ng Manila Bay kung madumi sa taas palang? (How will we clean Manila Bay if the waterways that drain into it are also dirty?)"