REHABILITATION OF MANILA BAY UPDATE:

DPWH Targets Full Cleanup of 1.5-km Manila Bay by July 

Two (2) units of multi-purpose amphibious dredge Watermaster Classic 5 will contribute to the Department of Public Works and Highways’ effort of completing by July 2019 the removal of debris, plastics, other solid wastes and dissolved solids or the so-called muck with some traces of sand from the 1.5-kilometer area of Manila Bay along Roxas Boulevard.

DPWH Undersecretary for Technical Services and Unified Project Management Office (UPMO) Operations Emil K. Sadain said that the deployment of two (2) units of  Watermaster Classic 5 with cutter suction that offers combination of mobility and heavy duty dredging capacity will further fast track “Sagip Manila Bay” clean-up works between the area of U.S Embassy to Manila Yacht Club in preparation for the upcoming rainy season.

“Improvements as a result of DPWH activities can now be seen but we will not relax and instead we beefed up our operating fleets of two (2) crawler mounted land based, four (4) amphibious excavators, debris segregators, and among others”, said Undersecretary Sadain during an inspection at the “Sagip Manila Bay” operation together with Bureau of Equipment (BOE) Director Noel Ilao and Assistant Director Amador Andrada, and Project Director Patrick B. Gatan of UPMO-Flood Control Management Cluster.

Secretary Mark A. Villar officially launched recently the DPWH desilting operations in Manila Bay by deploying a fleet of equipment composed of amphibious excavators, dumping scows, dump trucks, debris segregator, street sweepers, and vacuum sewer jet cleaners.

The operation at Manila Bay Area was divided by DPWH into five (5) sectors each ranging from 200 to 300-meter long, until the entire 1.5-kilometer is finished. 

It is estimated that to date, the total volume of removed muck and silt from 20 meters distance from shore to bay and thickness/depth of two (2) meters is at 18,000 cubic meters.

DPWH's Bureau of Equipment with the assistance of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) and Philippine Coast Guard (PCG), has also been continuously conducting water quality monitoring and bathymetric surveying of the desilting sites to monitor the progress.

The average amount of dissolved oxygen level which is one of the primary parameters under the DENR water quality guidelines of around 4.7mg/L prior to the cleanup activity has improved to the minimum dissolved oxygen level of 6mg/L necessary for sustaining aquatic life.

With cleaner water, Manila Bay will soon be fit again for swimming and other contact forms of recreation, added Undersecretary Sadain. (VerGarciaBlogs)