Pollution of the Pasig River

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The Pasig River in the Philippines suffers from a high level of water pollution and efforts are being made to rehabilitate it.

After World War II, massive population growth, infrastructure construction, and the dispersal of economic activities to Manila's suburbs left the river neglected. The banks of the river attracted informal settlers and the remaining factories dumped their wastes into the river, making it effectively a huge sewer system. Industrialization had already polluted the river.^[1]

In the 1930s, observers noticed the increasing pollution of the river, as fish migration from Laguna de Bay diminished. People ceased using the river's water for laundering in the 1960s, and ferry transport declined. By the 1970s, the river started to emanate offensive smells as a result of waste from swine and poultry establishments in the area where protected Marikina watershed is located (Pinugay, Baras, Rizal) and in the 1980s, fishing in the river was prohibited. By 1990, the Pasig River was considered biologically dead.^[1][2]

In 2017, a study on river plastic emissions into the world’s oceans cited the Pasig River as the world’s eighth most polluting river in terms of unwanted micro and surface concentrations of plastic waste entering the marine environment.^[3]

In 2021, a research by the American Association for the Advancement of Science on the world's rivers ranked the Pasig River as the largest contributor of plastic waste to the world's oceans, additionally claiming that 28% of the rivers causing plastic pollution globally are in the Philippines.^[4][5]

Efforts to revive the river began in December 1989 with the help of Danish authorities. The Pasig River Rehabilitation Program (PRRP) was established, with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources as the main agency with the coordination of the Danish International Development Assistance.^[6]

Gina Lopez launched in 2009 the Kapit-Bisig para sa Ilog Pasig project.^[7]

In 1999, President Joseph Estrada signed Executive Order No. 54 creating the Pasig River Rehabilitation Commission (PRRC) to replace the old PRRP with additional expanded powers such as managing of wastes and resettling of squatters.^[6] The administration of President Noynoy Aquino allocated PHP10 billion to clean the Pasig River.^[7]

In 2019, President Rodrigo Duterte abolished the PRRC, transferring its functions, including "all necessary and incidental powers," to the Manila Bay Task Force, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority, and the Department of Public Works and Highways, two months after firing PRRC executive director Jose Antonio Goitia for alleged involvement in corrupt activities.^[8]

• Water supply and sanitation in the Philippines
• Environmental issues in the Philippines