palomponenvironmentalissues

Global Conference On Land-Ocean Connections Adopts The Manila Declaration

2012-02-05T23:35:00.001-08:00

MANILA, Philippines — Delegates to the recent global conference on land-ocean connections (GLOC) and the third Intergovernmental Review (IGR3) meeting on the implementation of the Global Program of Action (GPA) for the protection of the marine environment ended with a high note with the adoption of the “Manila Declaration.”

United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Deputy Executive Director Amina Mohamed commended Environment Secretary Ramon Paje and the Philippine government for the excellent preparations and hosting of the conference.

DENR Secretary Paje said the adoption of the Manila Declaration reaffirms the commitment of member-countries to step up their efforts, particularly on priority areas identified in the GPA, such as the reduction, control and prevention of marine litter, wastewater and pollution from fertilizers.

“I strongly believe that what transpired in the conference is a giant leap towards the improvement of our coastal and marine environment and provide us the directions on our way towards the development of our coastal and marine environment within the prism of the green economy,” Paje said.

The Manila Declaration on Furthering the Implementation of the Global Programme of Action for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land-based Activities contains 16 provisions centering on programs to be undertaken for the period 2012-2016 at the international, regional and national levels, and within the framework of integrated coastal management, on GPA’s priority areas such as marine litter, wastewater, pollution from fertilizer and biodiversity loss.

The declaration also calls on member-countries to engage and step up their efforts to develop strategies and policies on the sustainable use of nutrients so as to improve nutrient use efficiency with attendant economic benefits for all stakeholders, including farmers, and to mitigate negative environmental impacts.

The document also indicated an agreement among the delegates to improve cooperation and coordination at all levels in dealing with issues related to oceans, coasts, islands and their associated watershed by applying integrated management such as “ridge to reef” approaches, as well as strengthen and promote the implementation of existing Regional Seas Conventions and Action Plans, including other relevant global and regional arrangements, agreements and programs for the protection of the marine and coastal environment
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DENR-Eastern Visayas chosen as pilot site for greening program

2012-01-14T19:24:00.000-08:00

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THE Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) regional office in Eastern Visayas has been selected as pilot site for 2012’s implementation under the National Greening Program (NGP).

DENR Regional Public Affairs Officer Purificacion Daloos said this recognition was made after the region exceeded its targeted number of hectares with tree seedlings planted since it was launched last year.

“Eastern Visayas was able to produce 4,052,500 seedlings for production and 8,105 hectares for planting with indigenous tree species,” Daloos said.

“We actually hit more than 100 percent because of our partners such as schools, non-government organizations, National Government agencies and local government units that held tree planting activities,” Daloos added.

It was learned that DENR’s accomplishment resulted from the agency’s social mobilization strategy, where various partners from different sectors were made to plant trees under the greening program. The convergence initiative of the Environment, Agriculture and Agrarian Reform departments posted an accomplishment of 83 percent by producing 70,000 seedlings out of the target of 84,000 seedlings.

As an offshoot of the region’s accomplishment last year, DENR-Eastern Visayas was given a higher target of 12,365 hectares to be planted with trees.

“We seek the cooperation of the general public in attaining this target. If we have made it last year, we hope to achieve this year’s target by planting more open and denuded forestlands in the region,” Daloos said.

Daloos added that the NGP aims to post a minimum survival rate of 80 percent for the seedlings by tapping science and sound upland practices, and confining indentified NGP planting sites in areas where there are communities who will be tapped to maintain and ensure growth of planted seedlings.

The NGP seeks to harmonize all greening efforts in the country and aims to plant 1.5 billion tree seedlings on 1.5 million hectares of land nationwide from 2011 to 2016. (Leyte Samar Daily Express)

Post titleStop illegal loggers and charcoal-makers

2011-12-23T03:17:00.000-08:00

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Pictures don’t lie. Pictures of the flood-devastated areas in Cagayan de Oro and Iligan show many cut logs scattered on the wasteland. The logs were washed down the mountain by the torrents of water. Most likely, they crashed into the houses, causing the houses to collapse and get carried away by the floodwaters.

That can only mean that illegal logging was going on in the forests because legal logging has been phased out.

And this is what is happening to our forests everywhere. First, the logging concessionaires come in, build roads through the forests and start cutting the trees. After they leave, the illegal loggers come in, cutting the immature trees left standing. They leave the logs where they were cut to dry, then come back later to saw them into lumber. That is to escape detection. Up there in the forests, they cannot be seen cutting up the logs. Such were the logs washed down by the raging torrents, the logs that destroyed the houses.

After the illegal loggers come the charcoal-makers who cut even the saplings and burn them into charcoal. Thus, no tree roots are left to hold the soil together. When it rains, the cascading water carries the soil down the mountainsides. With each rain, more and more soil is carried away until only bare rock is left. Thus, the water rushes down more violently.

Meanwhile, the mud carried down by the water is deposited at the bottom of the waterways which become shallower and made to hold less water. Thus, the rivers overflow their banks faster and flood the surrounding areas.

Unless illegal logging and charcoal-making are stopped completely, there will be more and worse floods and landslides. The trouble, where will the construction industry get its lumber? There is a big demand for lumber and the illegal loggers supply some of it.

First, the construction industry must learn to use less wood and more recyclable steel. Philippine construction is very wasteful of wood, a throwback to the time when we still had plenty of wood in the forests.

Form lumber, or the scaffolding used in the construction of residential homes, is wasted after use. They are simply cut into firewood after the house is finished. Some contractors are already using reusable steel scaffoldings but the smaller ones still waste a lot of wood. Coco lumber from coconut trees are filling in some of the demand.

But at the rate we are cutting down coconut trees, all those coconut plantations would soon be gone, just like our forests. So builders should learn to use less wood.

Second, we should be allowed to import wood for the finishing touches like flooring, walls, doors, cabinet paneling and furniture. But that means the forests of wood-exporting countries would be depleted and that would hasten global warming and climate change.

The furniture and woodcraft industries are already running out of wood. Very soon, our furniture-making industry would become extinct—just like the rattan furniture industry after our forests ran out of rattan—unless we import wood. But that would only be transferring the problem to another country, a problem, by the way, that would later on have repercussions on the whole world.

Worse, our sculpture and woodcraft are also running out of wood. Ask the woodcarvers of Paete, Laguna, and they will tell you that it is also becoming more difficult to procure pieces of wood for use in their craft.

And then where will you get the charcoal to feed the voracious appetite of all the ihaw-ihaw restaurants and sidewalk barbecue stands? The big demand for charcoal is the reason many people in the countryside have turned to charcoal-making.

But we already have the technology to make charcoal out of agricultural wastes. Palay husks, coconut coir, coco shells, hay, cogon and talahib, sawdust, sugarcane stalks, corncobs, twigs and leaves, even grass and weeds can all be compressed and turned into charcoal bricks. A former congressman is already making and selling these charcoal bricks. The trouble is he owns the patent for the technology and machine.

So why does not the Department of Science and Technology buy the patent from him and propagate the making of charcoal? That will give more income to the farmers and other people in the countryside. At the same time, it will continue to supply all the ihaw-ihaw and barbecue stands with charcoal. It is also an export product. Do you know that Singapore imports plenty of charcoal?

Our agriculture is very wasteful. Many agricultural byproducts like palay husks and coconut coir are just thrown away or burned when they can earn more income for the farmers. One prime example is the coconut water from millions of nuts made into copra. This coconut water is just thrown away when it can be turned into vinegar and even wine.

When President Aquino came home from the United States sometime ago, he raved about the fad for coconut water there. Coco water is supposed to be a health drink. A local company is already producing and selling coconut water in plastic packs. It costs more than the ordinary soft drinks but is better tasting and more healthful. P-Noy raved about the billions of dollars we can earn if we export young coconuts or buko juice to the United States.

The trouble is when you pick the young buko for export, there would be no mature coconuts left to be made into copra. But the coconut water in the buko is the same as the water in the mature coconuts which we just throw away when making copra. Why not sell this coco water instead and make the coco farmers earn more?

Island declared as turtle sanctuary

2011-11-17T03:55:00.001-08:00

For the protection of turtles and other endangered sea creatures

By NONOY E. LACSON

BANGUINGUI, Sulu, Philippines – The municipal government here has declared the Sipak Island off the village of South Paarul as a protected area for marine turtles and other endangered sea creatures living on the island, at the same time has limited the gathering of turtle eggs for commercial purposes.

Mayor Abdulwahid Sahidulla said he has issued an Executive Order (EO) banning the gathering of turtles and turtle eggs at the Sipak Island for commercial purposes.

Sahidulla said the turtles are now seriously considered as endangered species along with several sea creatures by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

Sahidulla personally visited the island on Tuesday together with some officials of the DENR stationed in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), and was convinced that the entire island should be placed under a government watch here.

During the same visit, Sahidulla with the DENR officials held a forum on the island and informed the people that the local government unit (LGU) here is now banning the gathering of turtle and their eggs for commercial purposes.

“This is one of the few sites that we have in the country today where you can find turtles of various species laying their eggs in the sand, and living along the coastal waters of this island,” Sahidulla said during his recent visit on the island.

Hadja Dar, a resident of the island, claimed that some turtles, including Green Turtles, are having some Chinese markings on their back, an indication she said that the turtles had reached that country.

Turtle eggs are abundant at a local market here and in the markets of neighboring islands, and in this municipality, and is being sold at a price of between P5 to P8 per egg.

The town chief executive here said that he will closely monitor the activities of the people of the island, and will penalize those who will violate the executive order that also carries also a corresponding penalty.

“We have to monitor the people living on this island, and punish those who will violate the order, in order for us to fully protect the turtles and other endangered sea creatures,” Sahidulla emphasized
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2011-10-10T23:16:00.000-07:00

Tondo girl’s painting best of 4 million entries

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The girl from Gagalangin in Tondo, Manila, counted Leonardo da Vinci among her idols. At first, however, the shy 13-year-old spoke so softly as Mona Lisa probably would, that you had to lean closer just to hear her.

But one look at her artwork and you’ll see how Trisha Reyes’ eloquence flows through her hands, her strokes on the canvas confident and emphatic like exclamation points, her colors a spectrum of emotions from fear to hope, from sadness to joy.

Combining these skills with inspiration drawn from a recent family outing, Reyes has sent out an urgent message—and the world is taking notice.

Her “Life in the Forest” topped the 20th United Nations Environment Programme’s (Unep) global painting competition. According to Bayer, a corporate sponsor of the contest, her entry bested some 4 million other children’s paintings from 99 countries.

The freshman from St. Stephen’s High School in Manila received the award and a $2,000 cash prize at the Tunza International Children and Youth Conference held in Bandung, Indonesia, earlier this month.

Her winning work, a 15” x 20” piece rendered in oil pastel and water color, will go on exhibit around the world and will be replicated in Unep posters and calendars, Reyes said in an interview last week.

“I’m very happy but at the same time I didn’t expect (to win). Of all the entries, I was lucky to be chosen,” she told the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

“There is a lot of news (about the environment) that get mixed up in my mind and adds to my knowledge. I’m very happy because through my painting, I am able to really express my feelings,” she said.

Ugly consequences

And when asked to describe her work, a more confident Reyes spoke almost without pause:

“In my painting, the little girl is me, parting a grey curtain to expose two sides: a sustainable forest and (the consequences of its) destruction.”

On one side, she said, “there is massive deforestation and its ugly consequences like air and water pollution, soil erosion, loss of biodiversity and people’s livelihood.”

On another part of painting, “I envisioned a sustainable forest where plants and flowers grow beautifully, diverse animals, birds, insects roam freely. I would like to express through painting that we must treasure our world’s biological treasures.”

Reyes’ win brought pride to her school. “We’re very happy and very proud of her. Our school’s philosophy is whatever the students’ interest is, we will help them develop,” said St. Stephen’s principal Judy Tan.

Under the guidance of a trainer, Reyes finished the painting in one weekend in April, three months after learning about the Unep competition.

A spark from ecopark

She said she drew inspiration from her family’s summertime trip to La Mesa Ecopark in Quezon City, one of the few remaining patches of green in the metropolis.

Reyes’ father Joselito has been a factory worker in Taiwan while her mother Conchita does office work. No one in the family has been into visual arts until Trisha and elder sister Joselle showed their talents.

Reyes said she first developed a love for drawing when she started emulating her sister, now a college senior, who has a knack for animé cartoons. “She was like a mentor,” she said.

At 7, Reyes won her first art competition, an on-the-spot contest at Museo Pambata in Manila. In the same contest, her sister earned an honorable mention.

Since then, Reyes has racked up one award after another, thanks to what she considers “a God-given gift.”

A catalogue of her works shows her personal trademark of bright colors, unexpected patterns and meticulous attention to detail. In Trisha’s world, skies, flowers and birds are best painted violet or pink.

Asean prize

Her art portfolio has grown into a thick collection of certificates from local and international competitions. In 2009, for example, she flew to Bangkok, Thailand, to collect her prize as the Philippine winner in the Asean Regional Drawing Competition.

At the Unep competition this year, Reyes said she had a blast interacting with fellow young artists from around the world, gaining “new best friends” from Kenya, Germany and Japan.

“We shared stories about our different cultures, our experiences and our hobbies. The best part was meeting new friends because it adds something to you as a person,” Reyes said.

With “college still a long time away,” Reyes has yet to decide whether she will pursue a career in the visual arts. Right now, she said, she would just focus on her academics while honing her painting skills on the side.

“On Saturdays and Sundays, if ever there’s a contest, I paint in the morning and study in the afternoon, or vice versa,” Reyes said, as though summing up a typical Da Vinci day.

The green mindset spreads to 1,000 developers, 30 countries

2011-09-19T18:30:00.000-07:00

By: Tessa R. Salazar
Philippine Daily Inquirer

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PROUDLY GREEN. Tan Chuan Jin, Minister of State for national development and manpower, is flanked by several green proponents. Singapore was ranked first among major cities in Asia Pacific for its environmentally sustainable building policies. Photo by Tessa R. Salazar

SINGAPORE—One color has been changing the way buildings and their components are now being made. It is, undoubtedly, green. But whereas before that color represented money and unbridled profits, and which had ironically cast a gray pall over the environment, today’s green stands for environmental sustainability.

And for just a conference and an exposition being held in the Lion City, this new “identity” assigned to the color which traces its roots to the Old English verb “growan” (to grow) can still also mean making a good, clean profit.

The International Green Building Conference 2011 and the green products exhibition Build Eco Xpo Asia were held at the Suntec Convention and Exhibition Center from Sept. 13 to 16. The conference gathered green building councils from various countries as well as an estimated 1,000 developers, architects, engineers and urban planners, while the exhibition had brought in 250 companies from 30 countries, attracting an estimated 8,000 visitors, and by the exhibit’s end, generated nearly $90 million in business transactions, as claimed by the expo organizers.

These events were held within the Singapore Green Building Week, and essentially offered to the public a new universe of environmentally sustainable building practices and technologies conceived by renowned industry think tanks, and made real by innovative organizations, engineers and industrialists from all over the world.

Ecologically responsible

The various symposiums on eco-cities, the tropical and subtropical green building councils’ alliance and sustainable construction pushed the envelope on ecologically responsible industry practices.

AUSTRIAN Fritz Oettl makes his home base for international consulting for sustainable architecture in Pakistan, Montenegro and Indonesia. Photo by Tessa R. Salazar

Christopher C. Dela Cruz, president of the Philippine Green Building Council and one of the speakers in the conference, told the Philippine media that PhilGBC’s mission in the building industry has primarily been to transform the market. “Berde is now positioned to be the rating system of choice of the property sector. More and more developers are using the scheme to illustrate leadership in environmental stewardship,” he said.

Berde, which stands for Building for Ecologically Responsive Design Excellence, is the first green building rating systemdesigned by Filipinos.

Dela Cruz also said the Apec-Asean joint workshop on green buildings, which was held here at the start of the week, “endeavors to harmonize standards in the region. We are working with the national Green Building Councils to create solutions in the property marketplace,” he said.

Dela Cruz’s counterpart Tai Lee Siang, the president of the Singapore Green Building Council, signed a strategic partnership with the Beijing Construction Decoration Association, Housing andDevelopment Board, the Building Research Institute, Jurong Town corporations and Singapore Business Federation.

Products of green minds

Simultaneously, at the expo, hundreds of enterprises proudly showed how green their minds were:

One showcased its lightweight wall planting modules.

Another displayed efficient hoisting machines with regenerative drives, thereby cutting energy consumption of building elevators by up to 50 percent.

A monitor showed real time consumption of electricity, water and gas.

Another group showed its sustainable lighting technology to reduce energy consumption.

THE WALLBOARD is of volcanic ash. Photo by Tessa R. Salazar

Another explained a new vertical farming solution with integrated biological lighting.

A window film with high clarity and low light reflection that blocked harmful UV rays demonstrated the potential of nano-ceramic technology.

Architects like Fritz Oettl, known for the “green building” design of the Austrian Embassy in Jakarta, were seen hobnobbing with the audience, answering questions on sustainable architecture in hot and humid climates.

At the exhibit opening, BG (NS) Tan Chuan-Jin, Singapore’s Minister of State for National Development and Manpower, announced the Building Retrofit Energy-Efficiency Financing program that would provide loans to building owners and energy services companies to enable them to carry out energy retrofits on their buildings starting on Oct. 1.

Greening target

Singapore, a city-state of just under 700 square kilometers, has set an ambitious target of greening 80 percent of its buildings by 2030.

Since April 2008, the Building and Construction Authority (the government agency responsible for the built environment and green building policies in Singapore) had required new buildings to meet a minimum environmental sustainability standard. The Ministry of National Development is set to amend the Building Control Act to extend the minimum Green Mark standards to existing buildings as and when they are retrofitted, making Singapore one of the first few countries in the world to mandate such standards for existing buildings.

DRAINAGE modules have high-volume water capture and transport. Photo by Tessa R. Salazar

Besides meeting minimum standards, Singapore’s buildings are required to operate at the optimum performance level to reap the most benefits out of their retrofits. Thus, owners would be required to conduct a thrice-yearly audit on their buildings’ cooling systems.

For energy monitoring purposes, BCA would also require utility companies and building owners to submit energy consumption and energy-related data. In 2009, BCA launched a $100-million Green Mark Incentive scheme to encourage owners of existing buildings to upgrade their equipment and carry out retrofits in order to achieve the Green Mark certification.

Chuan-Jin said Singapore’s building sector constitutes about a third of the country’s total electricity consumption, second to the industry sector which accounts for 40 percent of the total electricity consumption. He also said Singapore’s existing buildings make up more than 95 percent of Singapore’s building stock, and that there is much potential to improve their energy efficiency to contribute to Singapore’s carbon abatement.

He added that energy costs constitute 20 to 40 percent of the total operating cost of a typical building. “The more energy is conserved in our buildings, the lower the operating costs, all other things being equal.”

No. 1 copier working on a paper-free world

2011-09-19T17:39:00.001-07:00

By: Paolo G. Montecillo
Philippine Daily Inquirer

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THE TREND of becoming “green” in the workplace has taken most companies, both in the developed and developing world, quite literally by storm.

The frequent typhoons in the Pacific and hurricanes in North America remind everyone of the phenomenon now known as global warming, all caused by the world’s seven billion people not paying attention when their gradeschool teachers taught the three Rs-reduce, reuse, recycle-in class.

But the people behind the brand “Xerox” are determined to turn offices and homes around the world haspaper-free and environmentally friendly as possible.

“We are one of the members of society, so we have to give back for the benefit of everyone, especially our customers,” says Iwao Abe, president of Fuji Xerox Philippines in a recent meeting with Inquirer editors.

Now, it may sound perplexing to some Xerox, which is on the prestigious list of companies whose brand names have become synonymous for whatever it is they do (i.e., Colgate = toothpaste), wants people to use less paper.

After all, their entire business model revolves around people making as much copies of documents as they possibly can, and using endless reams paper every day. Are they trying to lose money on purpose?

The answer, if you have to ask, is no. Fuji Xerox isn’t trying to dig its own grave by turning its original business model on its head.

Like most companies that have lasted half a century, and there aren’t that many, Fuji Xerox has evolved.

“It’s good that our name is synonymous with copying, but it also makes it hard for us because we do much more than that now,” Abe says as a manufacturer of documents management hardware and software. While the act of printing out documents will remain an integral part of any workplace, Abe says the company believes that much is still wasted by printing and copying unnecessarily.

The company’s full line of products in the Philippines include digital printing and publishing systems, digital multifunctional devices and copiers, document management software, supplies and comprehensive document management services.

Aside from other big players such as Canon and Ricoh joining the photocopying game that Xerox once monopolized, the company says it has been a pioneer in coming out with new technology that not only reduces a client’s carbon footprint but cuts expenses as well.

“What’s important for customers nowadays is the total cost of ownership. Then, they want to improve productivity and security,” Abe says. “On top of that, green technology is something people are now paying attention too.”

Many tasks in offices, the company says, no longer require printing documents. Sending out memos, circulating approval forms that need to be signed, and even faxing from one office to another can all be done electronically, the company says.

The company also offers document storage services, which allow firms to do away with stacking boxes full of old printed quarterly presentations and other useless reports, leaving all that shelf space for more important things like picture frames and toys that come with happy meals.

In the country, one of the company’s major markets in the Asia-Pacific region, the company recently launched its new Eco SITE, which stands for its Ecology Showroom, Innovation and Information Center, Technology and Technical center and Education and Environment center.

The Eco SITE, located at the company’s local office on Ayala Avenue in Makati, serves as a training facility cum innovation center where clients can learn about the technical aspects of Fuji Xerox’s products, and how each device can be optimized inside a workplace.

The Eco SITE, which cost P30 million to put up, is equipped with training facilities to allow customers to train, simulate and execute different business tasks.

The goal, the company says, “is to reduce the environmental impact of our activities.”

“Through this, we encourage and inspire our customers and business partners to go green,” the company says. Abe adds it’s by using technology like that offered by Fuji Xerox that companies can balance their desire to grow profits with the need to curb global warming.

But despite the world’s concerted efforts to reduce greenhouse gasses to protect the environment, Abe says there is still a long way to go.

“The percentage of documents being printed is declining, but the actual amount of paper that is being used is still growing,” he says.

Abe adds Fuji Xerox wants to be one of the leaders in the global push for sustainability. The Eco SITE itself is built using environment friendly materials. About 28 percent of its carpet is made of recycled materials. Even more recycled ingredients went into the mix to make the Eco SITE’s walls and even the soundproofing.

The Eco SITE also promotes more obvious environmental-friendly practices in offices that anyone can do. For instance, none of the site’s projector screens are electronically operated, saving power.

He states companies, and more importantly, the government, should also include green policies in their procurement procedures. “In Japan, companies and the government require suppliers to be green,” Abe says, noting that businesses with smaller carbon footprints already have an automatic edge when vying for lucrative contracts and supply deals.

With its environment-friendly equipment, Abe says Fuji Xerox expects to grow its business significantly in the next few years. Another factor is the fact that the Asia-Pacific region is now one of the fastest-growing parts of the world.

The Philippines will be part of that growth, being the company’s third-largest market in Southeast Asia. “We’ve been growing 20 percent in the Philippines every year for the last three years,” Abe says.

‘Ondoy’s’ lesson: We must change the way we live

2011-09-17T22:06:00.000-07:00

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By Augusto Villalon
Philippine Daily Inquirer

LAST week’s column piece “Where Have All the ‘Esteros’ Gone?” has generated several feedback from readers.

“Let’s change the way we live,” writes M.L.C. “All is not lost, we can still reverse the situation now...though we must first do our part in taking care of Mother Nature.”

“Your article was a good read for those who are concerned with what just happened [the floods]...One thing for us to look into is the lowly bamboo as alternative for construction. It is sturdy and grows easily. Plant them in areas prone to landslides.

“We have to live simply so that others may simply live.”

From another reader: “Yes, I agree the drainage in Manila is so outdated it is the big reason why rains flood Manila.”

Krisbelle of Pagadian City, who has been living in Manila for eight years, observes in Filipino: “I do not see cleanliness in Manila; people here do not care about their surroundings. Only one thing will prevent flooding, that canals and drainage are not clogged and proper exits are provided.”

Chronic disregard

Readers express mainly outrage at how the government has allowed the state of the urban and rural environments to dismally deteriorate.

Outrage? By all means, we should be outraged.

Look at the chronic disregard of planning and environmental ordinances by government authorities and real-estate developers.

Consider the poor maintenance of drainage and flood-control facilities; over-concreting of urban areas; unregulated building over natural waterways and open public areas, whether urban or rural; massive deforestation. These are just a few of a multitude of issues that must be looked into immediately.

But we are as much at fault as those in authority whom we like to blame.
Illegal residents squat on easements and clog waterways with trash. From upscale communities like Forbes Park to mid-scale BF Homes, residents appropriate public easements as well, either fencing them off or worse still, covering them over with permanent structures that clog urban waterways with concrete.

Plastic-free Philippines

These days, a covered basketball-cum-multipurpose area gifted by the leading local politician is the centerpiece of most town plazas, displacing the usual open planted areas that would have naturally drained excess water back into the ground. Goodbye to natural water absorption.

Despite ill-enforced environmental laws to protect our forests, rampant illegal logging persists. Goodbye to natural flood control.

Rather than being outraged at government carelessness and blaming it for the widespread degradation, should we not also be outraged at ourselves for being so remiss?

In the same way that ordinary citizens banded together to help out flood victims, people can channel their energy protecting the environment. We could start simply by taking care of our immediate surroundings, keeping it clean and free from garbage, avoiding the use of plastic altogether.

A plastic-free Philippines makes so much sense after seeing how drains and waterways clogged by plastic caused flooding and destruction. This is a call for us to use biodegradable materials.

We should let our cities breathe again. Peel away as much concrete as possible. Restore open areas and replant trees and shrubs to allow excess water to drain naturally back into the ground.

It is time to change our environmental paradigms. The old way of environmental laissez faire does not work, as the floods have so cruelly shown us.

After the floods, we can’t go back to our old habits. We have to change the way we live.

E-mail feedback and comments to pride.place@gmail.com.

Bill against non-biodegradable bags approved

2011-09-17T22:05:00.001-07:00

By BEN R. ROSARIO

MANILA, Philippines — The House of Representatives has approved on third and final reading a bill restricting the use of non-biodegradable plastic bags in supermarkets, department stores, and similar commercial establishments.

Authored by Representatives Oscar Malapitan (NP, Caloocan City) and Raymond Democrito Mendoza (TUCP Party-list), House Bill (HB) 4840 drew bipartisan support when presented for third and final reading recently.

Malapitan and Mendoza said the bill imposes a three-year ultimatum on the use of plastic bags, which are being blamed for floods and other environmental dangers in the country.

Mendoza said biodegradable plastic bags are those that decompose by 60 percent within two years of use without leaving significant harmful residues, while non-biodegradable plastic bags are the widely used material which hardly decomposes even after decades and which has been identified as the primary reason for flooding due to clogged drains.

He said about 50 percent of floating waste on water is plastic that ends up clogging drain pipes or smothering turtles and killing birds and fish that mistake plastic as food.

“This is criminal!” said Mendoza.

Laguna Representative Dan Fernandez, chairman of the House Committee on Ecology, lauded his colleagues for strongly supporting the measure, considered a priority of the House panel.

The lawmaker cited the case of Los Baños wherein total ban of plastic bags and Styrofoam containers is being implemented and where residents are enjoined to promote the “Bring Own Bag” program, and encourage use of woven bags (bayong), cloth bags (katsa), paper bags, and other reusable materials.

“If it can be done in a small town, then it can be done anywhere,” stressed Mendoza.

Malapitan disclosed that a number of pro-environment firms have started developing biodegradable plastic bags.

From illegal logger to conservationist

2011-09-17T21:58:00.001-07:00

Local communities in Leyte lead movement to protect, manage forests

By JACQUELINE HERNANDEZ

September 17, 2011, 2:19pm

MANILA, Philippines — Expedito Vanzuela, 59, was once an illegal logger, cutting trees in the forests of Maasin, the capital city of Southern Leyte, where he grew up.

He sits outside the wooden shack in Sitio Canlugoc recalling those days. It is the headquarters of the Young Innovators for Social and Environmental Development Association.

“I didn’t have a job so I resorted to cutting logs to feed my family. I don’t know how many trees I cut down from 1975 to 1982… countless numbers),” he says in the broken Tagalog he learned growing up in his native village.

Although logging has been illegal for some years, Vanzuela and many people in Maasin considered it their only option for livelihood. They continued chopping the trees and selling the wood, despite the Leyte province’s prohibition against cutting trees.

Leyte is one of the only two provinces in the Philippines that supports total log ban; the other is Negros Occidental.

Vanzuela says that after being caught by local police in 1982, and after having conversations with people from the local government unit, he changed his mind. From then he started attending seminars offered by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and other organizations like the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH.

“Tumigil na ako sa pagputol. Natakot na rin ako dahil magkaron ng landslide pati sobrang paginit ng panahon. Sumama ako sa mga seminar una kong natutunan ang pag compose ng abono, pag asikaso sa lupa (I stopped cutting trees. I got scared of landslide and climate change. I attended seminars and the first lesson I learned was about organic composts, soil management),” Vanzuela recalled.

Today he is a conservationist, an active member of YISEDA, a community-based forest management project in Sitio Canlugoc in Barangay Lanao, Maasin City. Vanzuela has led his fellow Maasinhons in protecting the forest around them. He has thought dozens of children with the proper way of planting trees and has shared his agricultural knowledge to many.

Another YISEDA member Celsa Mori, 41, a mother of 4 children, says, “Negatibo ang pagtingin sa amin ng mga ibang mga tao nung 1980s, ignorante, walang pinag aralan, walang mga trabaho, kaya nag sumikap kami para ipakita na mali sila (We were perceived as ignorant, uneducated, worthless bunch of upland dwellers back in 1980s, so we worked our way to prove them wrong).”

So the people of Sitio Canlugoc soon engaged in reforestation, agro-forestry, domesticated animal-raising and alternative livelihood. They were awarded the Best Peoples Organization in Southern Leyte during the PO Regional Summit in Tacloban City on July 23, 2010.

“Kahit mga bata kapag may nakikitang buto ng Mahogany sa daan, pinupulot nila ito at itatanim ng maayos. Hindi na kami nangangaba sa kinabukasan dahil alam namin ang mga anak namin marunong na magbigay ng importansya sa kapaligiran (Even the children whenever they see a Mahogany seedling they would pick them up and plant it in a proper way. We are not scared about the future because our children know how to take care of the environment.),” Mori said.

Mori, together with other members of YISEDA, expressed their gratitude for the interventions of local government units and other organizations such as GIZ for the uplifting their lives, giving them the much-needed support for their livelihood programs. GIZ awarded 75 hectares for reforestation, 25 hectares for agro-forestry and 50 hectares for Assisted Natural Regeneration project to the group back in 2010.

With the pilot launching in Southern Leyte of the Reducing Emission from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD)-Plus, the newest variation of REDD campaign by GIZ, many organizations in the area will be deeply involved as they were to embark on the establishment of more nurseries raising trees seedlings needed for the program, conduct of surveys, mapping, tree planting, among others.

These groups include YISEDA, Katipunan Imelda Catmon Community Forestry Association (KICCFA) Inc. in Silago and other active People’s Organization, particularly among the Community–based Forest Management (CBFM).

Aside from the general objective of saving forests from further deterioration while conserving them for biodiversity and sustainable livelihood for local communities, REDD-Plus also aims to reduce emission out of deforestation and forest degradation.

This means conservation of forest carbon stock, sustainable management of forests, and enhancement of forest carbon stock. REDD-Plus also offers a performance-based incentive approach towards sustainable forest management and climate protection.

REDD-Plus, together with the National Greening Program (NGP) of the Aquino administration, are now vigorously pursuing until 2016 to conserve what is left of the more than 500 hectares of the virgin forests of Silago, Sogod, Bontoc, Tomas Oppus, up to the remaining forests in Maasin City.

According to the United Nations, the world population will grow by 50 percent to 9.4 billion by 2050. As the world population grows, the demand for timber grows in parallel with it. Thus, sustainable forest management and mainstreaming social accountability is an important step towards developing the national REDD-Plus strategy. Forests are renewable, an important fact to remember when considering how to best manage them.

Vanzuela now proudly walks inside the forest carrying Mahogany seedlings to be planted on the slopes of Maasin forest. He braves the slippery and dangerous terrain of the mountains to plant seedlings that his children and grandchildren will harvest 20 years from now.

“The arrival of the new millennium provides an ideal opportunity to implement a positive vision for the future - one which draws together the peoples and nations of the world behind a common goal,” according to Restoring the Earth Project.

Sustainable development seen by ‘going green’

2011-07-01T16:56:00.000-07:00

By: Theresa S. Samaniego

Philippine Daily Inquirer

ARYA Residences is the country’s first residential development that is registered to US Green Building Council’s LEED.

PROPERTY DEVELOPERS are one in believing that the good years are back.

With increased investments and economic activity, demand for office and residential space continued to surge, largely fueling the growth of the real estate sector—a movement seen by industry observers as the start of the so-called “up-cycle.”

CB Richard Ellis Philippines president Rick Santos, for one, shared this belief as he commented that the robust growth being currently enjoyed by the property sector is not just a “bubble” as there was real demand, not only in the Philippines, but also across the entire Asia-Pacific region.

“Things look very good now. The government looks stable, so many new players are coming in for the BPO and the knowledge process outsourcing companies,” added Jose Luis F. Matti III, executive director of CB Richard Ellis Philippines, in an interview.

Go for green developments

But for the Philippines to keep its position as a favored spot for investments and for the real estate industry to sustain this momentum, CBRE Philippines is strongly urging local developers to go for “green developments.”

Currently the buzzword among companies and developers, “green development” is the designing, constructing, operating and maintaining of a building in an environment-friendly manner.

“Green development, from being a fad, must now become a standard for most developers… (Putting up a) green and efficient building is the new trend that prospective tenants are now considering in their space requirements,” company officials said.

Investors, according to CBRE, are now more intelligent in choosing their office and residential space as many would see green buildings benefiting not only the environment, but also the developers and end-users alike.

THE ZUELLIG Building is a LEED Gold pre-certified office space.

“They know that a green building is a better place for work. In fact, in a study conducted by CBRE US, they found out that in green buildings, there’s an average of almost three days less absences per employee, so that’s a big factor when you consider the output of your workforce. It’s generally healthier so the productivity is there,” Matti explained.

He also pointed out that most companies nowadays are pushing to, whenever possible, locate in green buildings, as part of their environmental advocacies or corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs.

Savings

Admittedly, the cost of going green may not be that easy on the pocket.

Matti however pointed out that green buildings, if well-planned, would not cost more than a regular building in the long run. Savings, he added, can be gained once the building starts its operations and will more than offset the additional costs required in a regular building.

Asked how is it possible that a green building is cheaper than an ordinary building, Matti replied, “Green buildings earn almost 8 percent more in terms of rent than a regular building and surprisingly, for sales purposes, they can go as high as 16 more than conventional buildings. So whatever small investment you give is offset by the additional income.”

Developers who would want to adopt the green mantra, however, should be prepared to face the challenges of putting up a green development.

“Some materials like wood have to be sourced from commercial forest, meaning forest that’s designed for harvest and is renewable. Insofar as recycling and waste control is concerned, we don’t have companies that can help us with waste disposing and recycling,” he noted.

Helping make one’s dev’t green

REAL estate advisory firm CB Richard Ellis’ chair and chief executive Rick Santos and Jose Luis F. Matti III, executive director

Still, the benefits of a green building far outweigh the difficulty of facing these hurdles. Matti tells developers of some of the basic things that would help make one’s development “green”:

Green developments should use less water, energy and makes use of construction materials efficiently.

In terms of energy efficiency, the developers must find ways to use as less electricity as possible by, for example, getting the best type of air-conditioning system that uses less power but performs similarly as the other systems.

If your glass can block out heat, then that’s another advantage because it makes the aircon use less power. Also if you have a lot of glass, you’ll also need less light because all the sunlight come in. During construction and operations, recycling of all the materials should be done, nothing should go to waste. Wood and paper waste must be properly recycled into other forms of reusable materials.

Replace all the greeneries that was lost during construction by putting a roof garden or planting somewhere else to compensate for what you took out form earth.

As it is, the Philippine office and property sector already have the best fundamentals because of the lower rental rates and skilled workforce but by going green they can provide further premium on their developments.

Aquino ally calls for boycott of China-made products

2011-06-30T01:06:00.000-07:00

By Gil C. Cabacungan Jr.

Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANIILA, Philippines – Albay Governor Joey Salceda, a political ally of President Aquino, urged Filipinos on Sunday to band together and boycott China-made products in retaliation to Beijing ’s “bullying’’ in the country’s territory.

“Let us boycott ‘Made in China’ products, buy Filpino. Let us hurt them where it counts. We also protect our children and communities from the pervasive and persistent risks of various types of contamination and poor quality of their products,’’ said Salceda in a speech during an Independence Day ceremony at the Albay provincial hall.

Salceda said retaliation through trade against China’s repeated intrusions in Spratlys Islands and the West Palawan Sea has become the only viable alternative to ordinary Fiilpinos since military provocation was not an option.

The governor said the country could not depend on other countries in fighting off “not only threats to our national sovereign territory” but also actions that bring “shame to our dignity as a race and as a nation.’’

The Philippines posted a $900-million trade deficit with China in 2010, said Salceda. The country imported $7 billion worth of goods from China while shipping a little over $6 billion goods to China, but Salceda reckoned this was actually bigger as he estimated that another $3 billion worth of goods were being smuggled from China and were sold in Divisoria.

Salceda said that boycotting China-made goods would force exporters to seek alternative markets for their products and prompt industries to get their inputs from other sources. He said that China has placed little foreign direct investments and soft loans to the country. Most of the Filipino workers are deployed in Hong Kong and Macau, not in the Mainland, according to Salceda.

“The consequences of a China economic reprisal are offset by the strategic benefits of national unity and dignity, which by themselves are priceless. The risks of China boycott are reasonable and affordable when compared to the costs to national well-being of other options or of doing nothing,’’ said Salceda.

“Sure, it will not bring mighty China to their knees but it would make loud and clear to the imperial mandarins of Beijing that all Filipinos are united in their sentiment: enough to the bullying that tramples upon our dignity as a nation,” he said.

“This should send a strong signal to the Chinese people who shares kinship in our humanity that their rulers are committing these infringements in their name,’’ added Salceda, a former top stock market analyst and economic adviser of the previous Arroyo administration.

Plastic bag ban benefits cited

2011-06-29T01:06:00.000-07:00

By JONATHAN M. HICAP

July 10, 2011, 2:52pm

MANILA, Philippines -- Six months after the plastic bag and styrofoam ban was implemented in Muntinlupa, the city government said it has eased flooding in the city and reduced the volume of collected garbage.

It was also reported that store owners and consumers have become accustomed of doing their daily business without plastic bags.

Al Cosio, head of the Environmental Sanitation Center, said the plastic bag ban has greatly eased flooding in the city.

Mayor Aldrin San Pedro said that because of the plastic ban, the city was spared from flooding during the onslaught of typhoon “Falcon” last month.

Store owners said their expenses were reduced since they no longer buy plastic bags to put items bought by consumers.

Supermarkets in Muntinlupa now use alternative receptacles to place groceries. SM Supermarket, for instance, uses cardboard boxes to pack groceries. Consumers also have the option to buy the supermarket’s reusable green bags. Other groceries use paper bags made of old newspapers and magazines.

Residents now use the traditional “bayong” or native bag, or reusable bags when they go to public markets or grocery stores.

Environmental groups said that so far 11 towns and cities in the country have passed ordinances which banned the use of plastic bags. These are Muntinlupa in Metro Manila; Carmona, Cavite; Antipolo City, Rizal; Los Baños, Laguna; Sta. Barbara, Iloilo; Lucban, Quezon; Infanta, Quezon; Imus, Cavite; Biñan, Laguna; Batangas City; and Burgos, Pangasinan.

Environmental groups cited local government units for the ordinance and urged lawmakers to pass a national law that will prohibit the use of plastic bags and promote organic reusable bags.

They also want the implementation of a take-back mechanism where producers will be asked to recover plastic discards and a plan for support to LGUs in waste management initiatives.

“We know for a fact that our noble legislators in Congress, led by the tireless Committee on Ecology, are doing their best to complement what our LGUs have started. We want them to know that we will be behind them in firmly cutting down waste and phasing-out plastic bags,” said Roy Alvarez, president of EcoWaste Coalition, in a recent statement.

Shortages of fresh water seen as emerging threat

2011-06-10T00:41:00.000-07:00

"The Ripple Effect: The Fate of Fresh Water in the Twenty-first Century" (Scribner), by Alex Prud'homme: A rising chorus of jeremiads warns that shortages of freshwater, not oil, will trigger the most pressing challenges of the 21st century.

A spate of books and articles has laid out possible scenarios in which population growth, pollution and mismanagement will lead to a scarcity of water in some regions. The idea that large population centers such as Phoenix and Las Vegas could be rendered uninhabitable may no longer be the stuff of apocalyptic fiction.

Prud'homme, co-author with his great-aunt Julia Child of "My Life in France," makes a thoughtful and compelling case that policymakers and average citizens should pay more attention to the precious but undervalued commodity that flows from their taps. Future wars, he suggests, may be fought over water.

This comprehensive account, reflecting exhaustive research that took Prud'homme across America, contains a series of dramatic stories and colorful characters that highlights the degradation of the nation's once pure and abundant waters.

The book begins with the 2005 murder of a 43-year-old Ph.D. hydrochemist and mother of three whose body was recovered from the bottom of a 35-foot (10-meter) concrete tank at a water purification plant in northern New Jersey. The unsolved mystery serves as an introduction to the various ways in which our water supply can be contaminated.

Prud'homme segues into the sad history of some of America's most chemically befouled waters, including Newtown Creek in the New York borough of Brooklyn and the Housatonic River in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, before detailing the impact of agribusiness-related pollution in Wisconsin and the Chesapeake Bay region.

He descends 580 feet (177 meters) below midtown Manhattan for a fascinating report on construction progress on a 9-mile(14.5-kilometer)-long tunnel that was planned more than 50 years ago to meet New York's demand for water. It's now set for completion in 2020 at an estimated cost of $6 billion.

Population growth is sure to contribute to future water scarcity, particularly in the fast-growing Southwest. Another factor is climate change, as rising temperatures result in more frequent floods and droughts. Because the biggest users of water are irrigated agriculture and power generation, the effects go well beyond the trickle from household taps.

Prud'homme sees Phoenix "as a kind of experiment in extreme living, like a dress rehearsal for life on Mars, or perhaps for a future America beset by regions of extreme heat and dryness." Las Vegas "could be relinquished to the dust, heat and tumbleweeds."

Other issues include privatization of water supplies, exemplified by the efforts of former oil wildcatter T. Boone Pickens to suck up rights to groundwater that can be sold to thirsty cities across Texas.

The book also examines bottled water, a "cultural phenomenon" embraced by tens of millions of Americans despite an exponentially higher cost than tap water and the questionable effect of the bottles and the fuel required to transport them.

Amid the gloom and doom, water managers are seeking drought-proof supplies of freshwater, or what Prud'homme calls "the hydrologic Holy Grail." One idea is to modify the weather by seeding clouds with dry ice particles, a technique still unproven. More realistic, perhaps, is desalination of seawater, a method used in Saudi Arabia that requires large quantities of energy.

The more ambitious visions include "Flipping the Mississippi" to divert water from the nation's amply supplied midsection to the thirsty West. But the author deems such ideas as unrealistic, preferring solutions that work with nature rather than disrupt its balance.

Examples of wise water management include Singapore, which controls demand through high water taxes, efficient technologies and constant reminders about the need to conserve. A gold star also goes to Intel, whose water-efficient semiconductor fabrication plant in the Arizona desert has become a model for industrial conservation.

"The Ripple Effect" offers a balanced and insightful assessment of what could emerge as the dominant issue in decades ahead. Anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the threat to what the author calls "the most valuable resource on earth" would do well to heed his message. (AP)

Balangay romance: Love blooms at sea for mountain lover, prof

2011-05-31T01:40:00.000-07:00

By Jeffrey M. Tupas
Inquirer Mindanao

His love affair with the mountains is beyond doubt, having spent most of his life singing the most romantic serenade—the way only a possessed lover can do—to the precious forests and sacred rivers that had embraced him over the years.

Until quite recently, Fred Jamili, a 59-year-old experienced mountain climber, lived a life entirely devoted to the mountains.

Not that he has shaken off his passion for high places, but Fred has found a new love.
It is ironic that after more than three decades of conquering mountain peaks here and abroad, Fred would find his new love waiting for him to set foot in Zamboanga City.

And it was all thanks to the Philippine Balangay Expedition, which last year took replicas of the historic precolonial vessel on a triumphant 12,600-kilometer journey across the country and Southeast Asia.

Fred, who was a member of the First Philippine Mt. Everest Expedition Team’s technical and support group, was one of the voyage’s leaders.

His new love

In March 2010, the expedition’s three balangays (boat villages) docked in Zamboanga City, a few months before it completed its 15-month Asian voyage.

One of those who welcomed the expedition was Fred’s future bride, Russelle Tabuniar.
“I thought, yes, I will forever be married to the mountains. I had convinced myself that the mountains are my wives until I met her,” said Fred.

Russelle, 30, a history professor at the Ateneo de Zamboanga University, will wed Fred, 59, today, something they both never imagined would happen to them until they met.

“This is a special wedding for the special woman in my life,” said the soft-spoken Fred.
The groom will be wearing a coat embellished with beads. The bride will wear a matte-gold beaded dress.

“We want it to be simple and something that will take us back to our cultural roots. The beads will connect us to the culture of the indigenous peoples. It is something that is always part of their life, art and culture,” said Russelle.

Shipboard wedding

The wedding will be celebrated on the Masawa Hong Butuan, one of the balangays, which is now moored at Barangay (village) Bading in Butuan City.

It is the couple’s way of paying homage to the reason why their love blossomed.
“I met her because of the balangay. When we decided to get married, we both wished it to happen here,” said Fred, who is from Bago, Negros Occidental.

“It was not love at first sight. Nothing like that,” said Russelle of their first meeting when the expedition docked in Zamboanga City last year.

Russelle was part of the committee formed by Ateneo de Zamboanga to hold a symposium on the voyage.

“That was a very formal meeting. We were not even properly introduced. Even during dinner, the discussion was very formal but she already made a good impression on me because she was very knowledgeable about history,” said Fred.

A texting romance

Two months after they met, Fred and Russelle were in love.
There was no formal courtship. Everything happened through constant texting.

“We just found ourselves in love with each other. The words and the process of courtship were no
longer needed,” said Russelle.

A month after they first met, Fred told Russelle by text message that he wanted to marry her. And then over dinner in Pagadian City, he personally proposed marriage, which she happily accepted.

“She is outgoing and we have almost the same interests. Academically, she is into history. It’s like we’re similar in a lot of things, something that I have not found in other women,” he said.
“She is very special to me,” he added.

For Russelle, married life is something unimaginable if it were not with Fred.
“He is adventurous. I love the fact that he understands the life that I was imagining to be. I am very adventurous myself and I want to spend a lot of my time outdoors. Other men would not understand that,” she said.

Better late than never

Art Valdez, Fred’s mountain climbing partner since 1979 and the Balangay expedition leader, said their group was happy that “[Fred] has found someone other than the mountains.”

“All his life, he had no one to care about, he was carefree and always out there … it is worth celebrating that he has finally found something that will temper him and will complete the cycle of life,” said Valdez, a former transportation undersecretary who chairs the Mountaineering Federation of the Philippines.

“It is better late than never,” he added with a laugh, remembering the bridegroom’s age.
According to Valdez, a lot of things changed in Fred after he met Russelle.

“He was always cross. A terror. Very strict. But when he found love, he changed. Love brightened him, lightened him up,” he said.

But Valdez, who will be godfather at the wedding, hopes that Fred’s romance with the mountains and the great outdoors will not be weakened by marriage.

“But I am confident that Fred will always be part of our expeditions. His wife will understand,” he said.

Like launching a ship

As for his advice to the couple, Valdez said: “Marriage is like the launching of a ship in an unchartered sea. It is full of challenges but determination and love will be able to bring you to that desired destination. Overcome the big waves and bad weather. And it will make the journey worth it.”

For Fred and Russelle, marriage only signals the beginning of their journey together.

“I know it will be an exciting journey with him. People asked me if I am excited about the wedding day and yes, I am. But what I am more excited about is the journey with him, that life with him,” Russelle said.

And Fred has another adventure in his mind.

“We are not only living a new life as husband and wife but we will also be building our own boat house, our own balangay,” he said.

Destructive plastic bags

2011-05-30T05:46:00.000-07:00

By: Dr. Esther L. Baraceros
Philippine Daily Inquirer

WHICH PARTICULAR place in a barrio, a town or a city repeatedly gathers a lot of people any time of the day, especially early in the morning or late in the afternoon? The answer is: Market! Market! Market!

Yes. In this place, your attention is caught by all kinds of fish, vegetable, fruit, meat or dairy product. Here, you also see people prone to doing things that aggravate the country’s problems: garbage disposal, perennial floods, polluted environment or climate change. Once you are here, you get to observe buyer-seller transactions that make plastic bags part and parcel of any commercial agreement. Apparently, putting the object of the transaction inside the plastic bag signals the end of the business deal.

Plastic bag for bangus, plastic bag for ampalaya, plastic bag for tomatoes, plastic bag for this and that and so on and so forth. Every item, big or small, cheap or costly, wet or dry, goes into a plastic bag. Buy just a single item; say, one camote, one apple, or one sayote, and right away, the seller opens a plastic bag and shoots the lone item into this ubiquitous but problem-giving container.

In fact, a wet or watery item like fish or chicken settles not only into one plastic bag but into two or three. One kilo of galunggong is placed inside a first plastic bag that is small, thin and transparent; this is then thrust into the second plastic bag that is bigger, thicker and translucent, with a handle; finally, the already-twice-covered galunggong is placed inside a third plastic bag that is the biggest and the thickest, and with a sturdier handle. To accommodate a mixture of purchased items, this third one, the “major-major” plastic bag, needs to be the strongest among the three plastic bags.

So, now, do your math. Count the number of people buying things from the market plus the number of items they take home daily. Start from vegetables: eggplants, ampalaya, tomatoes, onions, etc.; next, meat: pork, beef, lobsters, etc.; then, fruits: atis, mangoes, oranges, etc; and, groceries: sardines, milk, coffee, soaps, oil, etc. Unless these are bought at a big supermarket, not a single one of these enumerated items is exempt from sloping down into three different plastic bags. Thus, every day, each market buyer accumulates more than a dozen plastic bags in his or her house. Multiply the number of market buyers with the approximate number of plastic bags taken home by the buyers, and what do you get? Thousands and thousands of used plastic bags in a city in one day!

One thing more: Not all these used plastic bags are disposed of properly. Light as kites that are easily blown by the wind, several of these plastic bags travel from place to place or dangle from one structure to another. Further, the use of these plastic bags by some barangays as town-fiesta decorations contribute to the easy and speedy travel of these plastic bags.

In some places, you see plastic bags bulging with garbage that people purposely hang from the trunk of a tree. Try roaming some streets in the city or in several not-so-posh subdivisions in Metro Manila, and witness a tree trunk in front of two or more houses used as a hanging garbage can. With many colored plastic bags hanging from every side or from the lowest branches, the pitiful tree appears like a Christmas tree.

Think of trees carrying heavy loads of garbage until the arrival of a city-garbage truck collector, or their exposure to pollution and vandalism. Definitely, trees put in this pitiful situation, lacking love and care from people around them, refuse to grow robustly and abundantly in any area. Treating trees in this manner means disregarding the beneficial effects of trees to humanity.

Much has been written and said about climate change, going green, planting trees and so on. Likewise, words have appeared in some daily papers about the Senate’s drafting of a law prohibiting the excessive production and use of plastics. Cognizant of the damaging effects of the extensive and wanton use of plastic bags, the Senate must work on this plastic bill in an expedient and fast-tracked manner. I hope one provision of this law will impose a penalty on people caught hanging plastic garbage bags from the trunk of a tree, and on residents using plastic bags as banners or decorations during town fiestas.

Dr. Esther L. Baraceros is a faculty member of the College of Architecture at the University of Santo Tomas.

Emulate Camotes on disaster programs, towns told

2011-04-25T00:31:00.000-07:00

By Carmel Loise Matus
Cebu Daily News

CEBU towns were called on to emulate the disaster risk programs of San Francisco, Camotes island which recently bagged a United Nations award for disaster reduction last week.

Dumanjug Mayor Nelson Garcia, who also heads the Mayor's League of the Philippines-Cebu chapter, lauded San Francisco, Camotes Mayor Aly Arquillano for his leadership that led to his town winning the 2011 United Nations Sasakawa Award for Disaster Reduction.

San Francisco, Camotes will receive a US $50,000 grant equivalent to P2.1 million which will be used for the town’s two million trees project.

The amount will also support the town’s Food for Work Project.

The Sasakawa Award “is a symbol of excellence and outstanding achievement in environmental inspiration and action,” said the UN Environment Program (UNEP), which sponsors the prize.

In a phone interview, Garcia said Cebu's towns are fully aware of disaster risk reduction programs since they had long been attending seminars and forums on this held by the UN.

“Each town has its own unique way of managing disaster. Camotes is too small it’s very easy to manage. The bigger the towns, the bigger your scope, the bigger are your plans also for the management of your town,” Garcia said.

The MLP president and mayor said he was happy that the town received the award and said there are similar programs in other Cebu towns which were also qualified to win the award.

Garcia said he would call on other mayors to focus their efforts on solid waste management.

In Dumanjug town, Garcia said he is campaigning for barangay captains to implement their own solid waste management program.

He cited the importance of community participation in implementing disaster reduction and solid waste management programs in Cebu's towns.

“This (garbage) problem is all over the province of Cebu as well as the whole Philippines,” Garcia said.

Garcia said he plans to set up a material recovery facility (MRF) for Dumanjug town with assistance from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in Central Visayas (DENR-7).

How Naga cut garbage collection by half

2011-04-07T06:47:00.001-07:00

By Shiena Barrameda
Philippine Daily Inquirer

ALMOST EVERY night at around 9, a couple with their two young boys in tow are on a bicycle with a sidecar, stopping at Jaime Hernandez Avenue in front of the first gate of University of Nueva Caceres in Naga City.
They are a common sight around the place, periodically stopping at piles of trash along the road, and inspecting the entire heap for recyclable items and those that can be turned into compost.

This done, they load the dirty treasures into the sidecar and rearrange the trash they do not need into a neat stack before leaving it behind and proceeding to scour the streets for more trash.

The couple is among some 70 “waste-picker” volunteers of the Naga City Solid Waste Management Office (SWMO), who have been trained by the city government to help its 27 barangays reduce garbage on the streets.

Watch group

“These people are mostly former regular scavengers until we detained them for leaving in disarray the garbage piles around Naga,” says Joel Martin, head of the SWMO and the Naga City Motorpool.

Martin says the scavengers have been transformed into “responsible” waste-pickers and are now called the “environmental watch group.”

The group is composed of poor and homeless people who make a living through salvaging and selling nonbiodegradable trash, such as plastics, to junk shops and making compost fertilizers out of those biodegradable, such as corn husks.

Before being registered into the group, its members undergo a weeklong training at the SWMO, where they learn how to recycle garbage and how to restack residual or remaining trash in a cleaner way, Martin reveals.

Night workers

They are then assigned to areas close to their communities. They are seen usually at night, before the garbage trucks arrive, wearing green and yellow T-shirts.

A waste-picker earns an average of P100 a day selling the items collected to recyclers and compost makers. The group also sells to Manila-based recycling establishments and local malls with environment-related projects, according to Martin.

“The creation of the group is actually part of the waste diversion goal and waste segregation scheme of the city. So far, coupled with the operation now of some materials recovery facilities, they have been instrumental in decreasing the average of garbage collected per day by the city by more than 50 percent,” he adds.

Martin says that even before the SWMO was devolved from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to the city government in January, average daily garbage collection in Naga from January to October last year went down to 57.1 tons—thanks to the waste-pickers program that was started that year.

Segregation works

This figure was only a dream in 2008 and 2009, when the daily garbage collections were 140-160 tons and 100-120 tons, respectively, he says.

Martin also credits the significant decline in collected garbage to the people’s newfound awareness on waste segregation.

“Our residents have realized that they could benefit greatly from reusing some of their trash,” Martin says. “I think this is already the result of all our efforts in campaigning for the recycling and reusing of garbage.”

He calculates that if Nagueños continue to subtract from their household refuse all the reusable and compostable products, the daily garbage collection may even go down by 47 to 40 percent in the next few months.

Martin believes that the stricter monitoring of establishments, particularly food businesses, has helped the SWMO in its waste management campaigns.

Materials recovery

Lately, he says, many food businesses have almost altogether stopped using Styrofoam and plastic utensils, opting instead for washable plates, utensils and glasses.

Another factor that adds to the decline in garbage is the materials recovery facilities or MRCs.
The MRCs are common points in villages or places where residents bring their garbage and sort them out, separating the reusable or recyclable ones from the residual wastes which have no use anymore.

These residual wastes are the ones that the garbage trucks pick up and take to Balatas Dump in Barangay Balatas on the outskirts.

Naga has six functional MRCs in Barangays Sabang, Triangulo, Calauag, Mabolo, Bagumbayan Sur and public market.

“We are planning to put MRCs in all barangays of Naga,” Martin says.
He acknowledges some problems of disciplining most residents on how to properly dispose of their trash, but he adds that he remains hopeful that more and more people will eventually become concern with environmental protection issues.

“As for now, we do our job so we can deliver the best service that we can give.”

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer

In Pangasinan, rivers breathe again

2011-04-01T18:22:00.000-07:00

By Yolanda Sotelo
Philippine Daily Inquirer

THE VIEW from bridges traversing Dagupan City and several Pangasinan towns is changing—the waters are clear and clean, and fishing boats sail unimpeded. Even the breeze seems fresher.

It was a much different sight a few months back when the rivers choked from the maze of fish pens, cages and traps. Navigating was difficult and fishermen were deprived of fishing grounds.

But the rivers are starting to breathe again, cleared of fishery structures that had occupied almost every available space.
In Dagupan, around 90 percent of the structures are gone, records from the city agriculture office show. Emma Molina, city agriculture officer, says only fish traps remain, but these will be dismantled soon when dredging machines reach their areas.

Removal of the fishery structures in Dagupan’s rivers started in October last year. As of December 30, 2010, a total of 927 pens and other structures had been dismantled, either by their owners or by the city government.

Mayor Benjamin Lim has imposed a moratorium in the issuance of aquaculture lease agreements “in hopes of letting the river system recover from further environmental degradation” and to give way to dredging operations.

The rivers are the Salapingao-Dupo to Centro, Patogcawen in Dawel, Tanap and Pugaro, which have been declared critical because sections of the waterways have become shallow (with water levels less than a meter deep).

“We hope to recover three to four meters in terms of water depth once the dredging operations are completed. It will take about a year to dredge the three main branches of our river system, operating at normal conditions, and both [dredging] machines working at the same time. We will not stop until we have reached our objective,” Lim says.

The provincial government aims to bring back the rivers’ beauty and productivity and to help control flooding when the rains come.

Tommy Cabigas, deputy head of the Task Force Kalikasan, says the main rivers and tributaries in Binmaley, Lingayen and Bugallon towns have also been cleared of illegal structures.

Task force members are conducting similar operations in the rivers of San Carlos City, and San Fabian and Labrador towns, and are helping dredge the Salapingao River in Dagupan. “So far, we have cleared a total of 110 kilometers,” Cabigas says.

No easy job

Clearing the rivers is no easy job even if the task force has policemen as members, he says.
“After we dismantle fish structures and we have turned our backs, the owners try to reconstruct them, especially the fish traps. We had to confiscate their nets and even filed cases against four operators in Binmaley and two in Lingayen for their refusal to remove their structures. A task force member was also stabbed while he was resting,” Cabigas says.
But their efforts are paying off. Residents and visitors notice the improvement in the waterways.

In Dagupan, Lim says fishermen are starting to reap the benefits from the removal of fishery structures.
“More fish are able to swim upstream and are being caught by our local fishermen. Fishermen have increased their daily income from P200 to P300 to as much as P500 to P600,” he says, citing interviews conducted by the city agriculture office.

Some 100 km in western Pangasinan, Anda and Bolinao are likewise dismantling fish pens at the Kakiputan Channel, which the two towns share. The channel, which is regularly hit by massive fish kills, has become polluted.
The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) gave financial assistance for the demolition in western Pangasinan—P1.2 million for Bolinao, P400,000 for Anda, P226,000 for Bani, and P180,000 for Alaminos City.
With the assistance, local governments would have no more reasons not to demolish and remove the illegal structures, says Nestor Domenden, BFAR regional director.

He says the bureau has long recommended the reduction of cages and dismantling of pens at the Kakiputan Channel and rivers. The agency also urged aquaculture players to follow guidelines on distance between structures, stocking density and feeding to avoid fish kills and pollution.

“In the long run, the regulated and efficient farm operations will result in better production and cleaner environment,” Domenden says.

Source: Philippine Daily INquirer

Businessmen join cleanup of shoreline

2011-03-31T18:16:00.000-07:00

By Jani Arnaiz
Inquirer Visayas

MAASIN CITY, Philippines—Businessmen joined government officials in collecting garbage that has affected the coral reefs in Padre Burgos town in Southern Leyte on Saturday.

The clean-up drive, held amid heavy rain, was initiated by the Southern Leyte Chamber of Commerce (SLCC). It aimed to create awareness among residents about the importance of proper disposal of their garbage to protect the coral reefs that have provided the town with 30 dive sites.

Robert Castañares, chamber president, said the campaign was also part of the organization’s tourism program.

“We didn’t know how serious it (garbage problem) was until former PNP (Philippine National Police) chief Jesus Verzosa called our attention,” he said. “Verzosa was dismayed because he saw a lot of garbage like plastic bags and bottles in the coral reefs unlike two years ago.”

About 300 sacks of garbage were collected from the shoreline and shallow waters, Castañares said.

What to eye for in a farm estate

2011-03-27T23:49:00.000-07:00

March 11, 2011 20:15:00
Philippine Daily Inquirer

Manila, Philippines—For hobbyists, serious farmers and retirees who need to shake off that sedentary lifestyle, what should be their guide in shopping for farm lots, now that these are sprouting like mushrooms all over the land?

Let’s ask the experts.

“Farm estates successfully integrate man-made, low-density development with the natural features of the site,” said Amado de Jesus, founding chair of the Philippines Green Architecture Movement. He added, “These are much more sensitive than regular land developments like subdivisions. Waterways, old growth forests, including indigenous wildlife must be respected and preserved while providing modern facilities.”

For agri-idealists, all farm practices should be ecologically sound. Bangon Kalikasan president Joey Papa said the basic things to ask and do when on the lookout for farm lots would be:

1) Does the development espouse organic farming?
2) Is rain harvesting done to avoid the overconsumption of water, especially for the farm?
3) Are there alternative sources of energy (such as the sun) for the farms and houses?
4) Is there an Estate Ecology Center or a similar establishment to manage solid waste?
5) Did the developer uproot or cut existing trees (a no-no) instead of planting additional ones?

Green Architecture Advocacy Philippines Chair Ega Reformado advised that one should take into consideration:
1) the development’s accessibility;
2) sewer system and drainage;
3) the type of fertilizer to be supplied (must be nontoxic, natural);
4) the power supply;
5) the sustainability of the development;
6) use of local materials and labor;
7) design of farm houses (should be “green”);
8) the community interaction; and,
9) recycling practices.

Inquirer Property, in 2010, cited 12 things to look for in a farm estate.

These are:
1) Fertile and tillable soil, preferably the clay loam to loamy soil type;
2) Available water (river, irrigation system, shallow or deep wells or rainwater ponds);
3) Accessibility, via a farm-to-market road;
4) Available power or electricity source;
5) Peaceful, environment-conscious community;
6) Land that is legally titled, and properly classified to become agricultural estate, and not those with agrarian disputes.
7) Sustainable if not fully organic farming technologies and best practices in organic inputs and materials production as well as the whole gamut of the value chain from preproduction to production up to postharvest, processing, handling and distribution and/or sales of produce;
8) Stress-free farm environment;
9) Avoid typhoon-prone areas where flooding is likely to occur;
10) Location. Metro Manila-based professionals can choose farm estates near the National Capital Region, such as Batangas, Rizal, Laguna or neighboring northern provinces of Bulacan, Pampanga, Tarlac, Bataan and Pangasinan, including Zambales and Nueva Ecija;
11) Know if a particular area is prone to soil runoff;
12) Farm estates should be in an area with a strong civil society—strong enough to oppose irresponsible land developers. Tessa Salazar

PH nuclear proponents abandon position

2011-03-14T18:22:00.000-07:00

By Gil C. Cabacungan Jr., Jocelyn R. Uy, Tonette Orejas
Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines—Proponents of nuclear power in the Philippines are reversing their position following partial meltdowns at two nuclear reactors in northeast Japan as a result of an 8.9-magnitude earthquake on Friday that spawned a massive tsunami.

Albay Gov. Joey Salceda said he had favored nuclear energy before because of high power rates in the country and because he had believed that the risks of nuclear energy could be managed.

“But now, the sheer fact that our country is situated in the Pacific Ring of Fire like Japan has settled the debate in my mind—no more to nuke plant,” Salceda said.

Caloocan Bishop Deogracias Iñiguez said the situation in Japan vindicated Catholic bishops in opposing repeated proposals either to revive the mothballed nuclear power plant in Morong, Bataan, or to develop a plant elsewhere.

“What is happening now in Japan confirmed our previous and present fears [about nuclear power plants],” Iñiguez said Sunday on the sidelines of the Church’s 25th celebration of National Migrants’ Day in Pasay City.

President Benigno Aquino III’s mother, the late President Corazon Aquino, ordered the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) project mothballed in 1986 due to safety issues and irregularities that attended its funding and construction.

Early last year, the Pangasinan provincial board endorsed a proposal by then Rep. Mark Cojuangco for the province to host two nuclear power plants.

In pushing for the building of a nuclear plant in the province, Cojuangco said it would push Pangasinan’s progress and lower its electricity rates.

Other nuclear power advocates made their voices heard last year after the country felt the initial symptoms of a power shortfall that could worsen in the next 50 years.

Former Sen. Manuel Roxas II, the Aquino administration’s “troubleshooter,” expressed interest in tapping nuclear power for the country when he was campaigning for vice president in the May 2010 elections.

Roxas said then that he would support studies on how the country could benefit from building a nuclear power plant and rehabilitating the BNPP.

But Iñiguez said government officials must closely follow the developments in Japan, where a nuclear plant operator in Fukushima Daiichi was scrambling to avert meltdowns in other reactors.

“They must study and intently follow what is going on with Japan’s nuclear plant now and consider what could happen if we have that kind of problem in our country,” he said.

Thousands of residents living near the nuclear plant have been evacuated after the cooling system of one of the reactors was damaged by the temblor that spawned a tsunami that wiped out towns and killed hundreds of people in Japan’s northeastern coast.

Rethink nuke proposal

Eastern Samar Rep. Ben Evardone said the situation in Japan should force a rethinking of the nuclear proposal.

“While there is a need to address the issue of power supply, the safety considerations should be paramount and should not be compromised,” he said.

Negros Occidental Rep. Alfredo Benitez said the damage on the reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant would serve as a strong argument against the activation of the BNPP.

Buhay party-list Rep. Irwin Tieng said the damage to the reactors had put into question the safety record of Japan’s nuclear plants.

“We have to decide what to do with the BNPP as soon as possible. Our inability to offer cheap electricity has kept investors away but safety remains a priority issue that must be addressed,” Tieng said.

Bagong Henerasyon party-list Rep. Bernadette Herrera-Dy said the earthquake tragedy in Japan proved to be the strongest argument against attempts by some sectors to revive the BNPP.

Dy pointed that since the proponents of nuclear power had pointed to Japan as the model to prove the safety nuclear power, the explosion in one of its nuclear reactors showed that this assumption was false.

She said Congress should put on the back burner all proposals for the revival of the BNPP.

The House committee on energy is set to tackle a proposal by Pangasinan Rep. Kimi Cojuangco, wife of Mark, to conduct a validation process that would determine whether the Philippines should go nuclear in its search for additional power supply.

Asked what Malacañang thought of proposals for the country to go nuclear, President Aquino’s deputy spokesperson, Abigail Valte, Sunday said it was better to look at proposals for alternative fuels that were “less controversial and with less opposition.”

No to BNPP

In the City of San Fernando in Pampanga, the Nuclear-Free Bataan Movement-Network (NFBM-Net) renewed calls to the President to reject proposals to revive the BNPP.

Lawyer Dante Ilaya, NFBM-Net chair, said the administration and proponents of the rehabilitation of the nuclear plant should learn from the disaster that struck Japan.

“The devastating earthquake in Japan should open our eyes to the reality that the Philippines is not a safe place for nuclear [power] plants,” Ilaya told the Inquirer by telephone.

Ilaya is one of the first antinuclear activists who resisted the project that began in Morong, Bataan, in the 1970s.

“Our country is often visited by earthquakes and we do not have the technology to prevent a nuclear disaster in case of a strong earthquake. Japan, despite being industrialized, turns out to be helpless against it,” he said in a statement.

In the same statement, Msgr. Antonio Dumaual, NFBM-Net co-chair, urged the government to go for clean energy from renewable sources, such as solar power.

Ilaya and Dumaual called on the government to dismantle the BNPP, to stop calls to rehabilitate and operate the facility and to address the power shortage in the country.

In July 2009, Kelvin Rodolfo, a Filipino-American geologist, drummed up support for a detailed hazard assessment by Mahar Lagmay and Fernando Siringan on Mt. Natib where the BNPP was closely built. With a report from Christine O. Avendaño

US experts fear 'Chernobyl-like' crisis for Japan

2011-03-13T18:15:00.000-07:00

By Ken Maguire
Agence France-Presse

WASHINGTON – US nuclear experts warned Saturday that pumping sea water to cool a quake-hit Japanese nuclear reactor was an "act of desperation" that may foreshadow a Chernobyl-like disaster.

Several experts, in a conference call with reporters, also predicted that regardless of the outcome at the Fukushima No. 1 atomic plant crisis, the accident will seriously damage the nuclear power renaissance.

"The situation has become desperate enough that they apparently don't have the capability to deliver fresh water or plain water to cool the reactor and stabilize it, and now, in an act of desperation, are having to resort to diverting and using sea water," said Robert Alvarez, who works on nuclear disarmament at the Institute for Policy Studies.

"I would describe this measure as a 'Hail Mary' pass," added Alvarez, using American football slang for a final effort to win the game as time expires.

An 8.9 magnitude earthquake that struck Japan on Friday set off the emergency at the plant, which was then hit by an explosion Saturday that prompted an evacuation of the surrounding area.

Workers doused the stricken reactor with sea water to try to avert catastrophe, after the quake knocked out power to the cooling system.

What occurred at the plant was a "station blackout," which is the loss of offsite air-conditioning power combined with the failure of onsite power, in this case diesel generators.

"It is considered to be extremely unlikely but the station blackout has been one of the great concerns for decades," said Ken Bergeron, a physicist who has worked on nuclear reactor accident simulation.

"We're in uncharted territory," he said.

The reactor has been shut down but the concern is the heat in the core, which can melt if it's not cooled.
If the core melts through the reactor vessel, Bergeron explained, it could flow onto the floor of thecontainment building. If that happens, the structure likely will fail, the experts said.

"The containment building at this plant is certainly stronger than that at Chernobyl but a lot less strong than at Three Mile Island, so time will tell," he said.

Peter Bradford, former head of the US NuclearRegulatory Commission, said that if the cooling attempts fail, "at that point it's a Chernobyl-like situation where you start dumping in sand and cement."

The two worst nuclear accidents on record are the1986 Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine and the partialcore meltdown of the Three Mile Island reactor in the US state of Pennsylvania in 1979.

Another expert said the Japanese accident will rank as one of the three worst in history.
"If it continues, if they don't get control of this and... we go from a partial meltdown of the core to a full meltdown, this will be a complete disaster," Joseph Cirincione, the head of the Ploughshares Fund, said in an interview on CNN.

Cirincione faulted Japanese authorities for providing partial and conflicting information about what was happening at the plant.

Cirincione said the presence of radioactive cesium in the atmosphere after the plant was vented indicated that a partial meltdown was underway.

"That told the operators that the fuel rods had been exposed, that the water level had dropped below the fuel rods and the fuel rods were starting to burn, releasing cesium," he said.

Japan's nuclear safety agency rated the Fukushima accident at four on the International Nuclear Event Scale from 0 to 7, meaning an accident "with local consequences," an official said Sunday.

The Three Mile Island accident was rated five while Chernobyl was a seven.
The government declared an atomic emergency and said tens of thousands of people living within 12 miles (20 kilometers) of the plant should leave after an explosion at the nuclear plant Saturday.

"This is obviously a significant setback for the so-called nuclear renaissance," said Bradford, the former NRCcommissioner.

"The image of a nuclear power plant blowing up before your eyes on the television screen is a first."
But a spokesman for the World Nuclear Association said in an interview with CBS News that the threat of a full meltdown is minimal.

"I think that possibility is remote at the best of times and is diminishing by the hour as the fuel gets cooler and generates less heat," said Ian Hore-Lacy, spokesman for the industry organization.

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer:

The world's worst nuclear accidents

2011-03-12T17:52:00.001-08:00

Agence France-Presse

TOKYO—Japan said on Saturday that an ageing nuclear plant may be in meltdown after a huge quake and monster tsunami ravaged a large area of the northeast, leaving more than 1,000 people feared dead.

Japan, which has experienced the only two deadly nuclear accidents since Chernobyl, faces atomic crisis after the cooling systems failed in reactors at two plants, forcing the evacuation of tens of thousands of homes.
Following is a list of the world's worst nuclear accidents in the past quarter of a century:

• March 28, 1979: 140,000 people are evacuated after an accident at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania, United States. The reactor's core suffers partial meltdown, causing contamination within the plant but none outside. There are no casualties. The accident registers five on the International Atomic Energy Agency's seven-point scale of nuclear accidents.

• August 1979: A leak of uranium at a secret nuclear site near Erwin in Tennessee, United States, contaminates some 1,000 people.

• January-March 1981: Four radioactive leaks occur in succession at the Tsuruga nuclear plant in Japan. According to official figures, 278 people are contaminated.

• April 26, 1986: The world's worst nuclear incident occurs when Reactor Number Four at Ukraine's Chernobyl plant blows up after an experiment goes wrong and the top of the reactor blows off. Some 200 people are seriously contaminated, of whom 32 die within three months. The accident is only revealed after a giant radioactive cloud is registered moving across northern Europe.

The fall-out is recorded as being equivalent to that from more than 200 atomic bombs of the type dropped by the US on Hiroshima in 1945. Hundreds of thousands of residents are evacuated from the area and a similar number are estimated to have been contaminated by radiation. The incident registers the maximum seven on the international scale.

• April 1993: An explosion at a secret reprocessing plant in Tomsk-7 in western Siberia releases a cloud of radioactive gas, including Uranium-235, Plutonium-237 and various other fissile materials. The number of casualties is unclear.

• November 1995: Serious contamination is reported at Chernobyl during the removal of fuel from one of the plant's reactors. The incident is reported only after an apparent attempt to cover it up.

• March 11, 1997: Work at the experimental treatment plant in Tokaimura, northeast of Tokyo, is partially halted after a fire and an explosion expose 37 people to radiation.

• September 30, 1999: Two workers die in an accident at the uranium processing plant in Tokaimura, Japan -- the world's worst since Chernobyl, rating four on the seven-point scale. Workers at the plant pour too much uranium into a precipitation tank as they cut corners to save time and can only watch helplessly as a blue flash signals the start of

Japan's most serious nuclear accident.

It exposes more than 600 people to radiation and forces around 320,000 to shelter indoors for more than a day. Two of the workers who triggered the disaster die from their injuries in hospital, three and six months after the incident. The first had been exposed to 17,000 times the average annual dose of radiation.

• August 9, 2004: Four workers are killed and seven others severely burned by a leak of non-radioactive steam at a nuclear plant in Mihama, 350 kilometres (220 miles) west of Tokyo.

One of the three nuclear reactors at the plant shuts down automatically when an alarm sounds just before super-heated steam leaks from a turbine and scalds workers. It is Japan's worst accident at a nuclear facility in terms of the number of deaths.

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer

Anti-plastic ordinance up for 2nd reading

2011-03-05T18:09:00.000-08:00

PROVINCIAL Board Member Roque Tiu said that they are now ready for the second reading of the anti-plastic ordinance after the conduct of a public hearing.

Tiu, the proponent and the main author of the ordinance, said the second reading will involve deliberation of every provisions of the ordinance by members of the board.

“We will study each provision if there are provisions that are objectionable and if there are provisions that need to be improved,” Tiu explained.

Once said proposed ordinance is passed on the second reading, Tiu said that it will immediately be referred for the third and final reading.

Tiu added that with long provisions of said proposed ordinance they are expecting for it to be approved by the members of the Provincial Board by the second quarter of this year.

“This is a sensitive ordinance that is why we need to carefully study this especially that it is to be implemented in the municipal level,” he explained, adding that the penalties included in the ordinance will go directly to the coffers of each municipality and not the Provincial Government.

Tiu added that during the public hearing the ordinance has received support from various sectors, especially from the business and national line agencies.

“They were happy that the Provincial Government through the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (Provincial Board) has this kind of move that will regulate the usage of plastic bags and of banning it in the near future,” he added.

During the public hearing, the owner of a big business establishment in Tacloban City that provides materials for home furnishing was also present and showed their alternative packaging materials to the members of the Provincial Board and to those who were at the plenary hall.

Said alternative packaging uses old newspapers as substitute to plastic bags and were made by the families of their employees that become an additional income for their employees.

Aside from the presentation made by the home furnishing establishment, there were also suggestion made by their resource speaker that are considered by the author to be included in the ordinance.

Although there are apprehension from the market sector particularly in the implementation phase of the proposed ordinance, Tiu said that the vendors also expressed support to it as it is also advantageous to them.

Tiu added that the representatives of the Environmental Management Bureau also lauded the proposed measure as it supports their program to reduce and stop the usage of non-biodegradable materials as it will help to minimize the effect on climate change.

The representative from the Department of Trade and Industry-Eastern Visayas also expressed support to the measure as it will complement the agency’s program in promoting the production of native baskets, bags and “bayong” that will provide additional income to its producers. (Leyte Samar Daily Express)

DENR out to save country's endangered largest flower

2011-03-05T16:32:00.000-08:00

ELLALYN B. DE VERA
March 5, 2011, 6:28pm

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has designated a two-hectare “critical habitat” for the threatened Rafflesia flower in Bukidnon.

Rafflesia schadenbergiana, locally known as “bo-o” or “kolon busaw” among Bukidnon’s Bogobo and Higaonon tribes, is the Philippines’ largest flower, which measures up to 80 centimeters or 39 inches in diameter and can weigh up to 10 kilograms or 22 pounds.

Under the DENR Administrative Order (DAO) No. 2011-02, DENR Secretary Ramon Paje declared a two-hectare piece of land situated in Sitio Kalanganan, Barangay San Vicente in Baungon, Bukidnon and called it the “Rafflesia schadenbergiana Critical Habitat” to ensure the survival of the “critically-endangered” flower.

The Rafflesia schadenbergiana was named after Alexander Schadenberg, a German ethnologist who made several expeditions to the Philippines.

The species was first collected in the vicinity of Mount Apo in 1882 and was believed to be extinct until it was rediscovered in 1994 in Mt. Matutum, South Cotabato.

In 2007, its presence was also recorded in Baungon, Bukidnon, just outside the Mount Kitanglad Natural Park.

“The Philippines takes pride in the endemicity of its biodiversity. The newly issued administrative order protecting the natural habitat of rafflesia will allow the DENR to work closely with the surrounding communities in ensuring the survival of the country’s largest flower, which, unfortunately, is a threatened species. By all means, we need to keep the critical habitat free from exploitation or destruction, and we can only do this through partnership with the local populace,” Paje said.

Squatting not a barangay burden

2011-03-01T18:09:00.000-08:00

Plain View
By ATTY. ROMEO V. PEFIANCO
February 23, 2011, 10:28pm

MANILA, Philippines – DILG this week shifted to 44,000 barangays the responsibility of stopping the spread of squatter communities nationwide.

What we know is that squatting on private/public land cannot be stopped even by the national government in cities like Manila, QC, Pasay, Caloocan, Makati, San Juan, Mandaluyong, all other local governments in NCR, and in all cities in the Visayas and Mindanao.

Spread of squatting

Squatting is a social and economic menace that has evolved in the last 50 to 60 years, especially in capital cities. River banks, shallow creeks (esteros), and small waterways have been claimed by squatters for some filthy reasons: 1) disposing of human waste and garbage is made easy, 2) their shanties are located near their place of work, 3) squatters run an underground “business or trade” that requires small capital, and 4) they can easily organize a form of “front” for election purposes.

Battlecry

Last December, the demolition of squatter leantos and shanties was stopped by President Noynoy before Christmas on humanitarian grounds.

What caught the TV viewers’ attention was their battlecry while defending themselves with steel bars and stones. They shouted, “Napakinabangan ninyo kami ng matagal” (We were useful to you for a long time). Yes, their deep grievance carried the ring of truth, especially their usefulness before and during election in May every three years.

Control in haciendas

In small provinces, about 20 of them, where poverty level has not gone down in the last few decades, the barangay officials themselves build their homes on land they don’t own.

Even in big and rich provinces where sugarcane is the principal crop, land ownership in a big town is shared by a few families which they call haciendas.

There are barangays in old and big towns that are fully located within the haciendas. The barangay government functions only with the consent of landowners.

Squatters’ beehive

In November, 1949, a maverick politician was elected congressman in the second district of Manila that includes Quiapo. He was a Negrense (from Talisay and Bacolod) named Arsenio Hilario Lacson. The nation’s capital became a beehive for squatters coming from various provinces and towns in Luzon and the south.

Their votes not needed

In November, 1951, Rep. Lacson decided to run for mayor and one of his major campaign pledges was to relocate or return all Manila squatters to their hometowns. But the candidate made it clear that their votes were not needed. NP Lacson won election by a landslide against a veteran politico and incumbent LP Mayor Manuel de la Fuente.

Demolition

Lacson’s campaign versus squatting, especially in Intramuros in the vicinity of MB, was completely successful after six years. Shacks, shanties, lean-tos made of old plywood, burned GI sheets, and pieces of wood left by anay were demolished on riverbanks, esteros, roadsides, and sidewalks.

Holdout

The last enclave to be vacated were the ruins of an old building destroyed in Liberation ’45 on Juan Luna, Binondo. It was aptly named Casbah (after the crowded quarters in Algiers). The squatters fought the city’s demolition teams to a halt and Lacson was forced to use half a dozen firetrucks to “finish” the relocation of Casbah’s tenants – dips, muggers, petty robbers, and other purveyors of vices big and small.

Re-claiming NCR

After Lacson, the nation’s capital was speedily reclaimed by squatters that slowly invaded all cities of Metro Manila. And no politician of stature ever wasted time to control squatting.

In the NCR, the squatter population is either guessed or estimated between 3.5 M and 4.5 M and QC is reported to be the nation’s squatting capital and leads all cities detached from Rizal province – Navotas, Malabon, Caloocan, San Juan, Mandaluyong, Pasay, Makati, Parañaque, Las Piñas, Taguig, and Pasig.

Squatters anywhere

There’s no estimate of the squatter population nationwide. In provinces, cities, and towns, squatters build their “homes” on farms, highway shoulders, roadsides, public land, etc.

Controlling squatters, now promoted to “informal settlers,” is a tall order given to barangay officials. (Comments are welcome at roming@pefianco.com).

Bills against pollution doesn't go far enough

2010-09-14T22:22:00.000-07:00

Philippine Daily Inquirer

A national law to regulate noise pollution is long overdue. House Bill 7072 authored by Reps. Dato Arroyo, Ferdinand Martin Romualdez et al. could be a step in the right direction, but by limiting its scope to cover only noisy car engines and the blowing of horns in “non-commercial districts,” its authors stopped short of crafting an encompassing and effective law.

Haven’t these lawmakers noticed that, more than automobiles, most of which are equipped with regulation exhaust/muffler systems, the noisier vehicles that pass through non-commercial or residential areas are tricycles, motorcycles and jeepneys with straight exhaust pipes? And if the real intent of the law is to safeguard the general health and well-being of residents in non-commercial districts, then why have its authors left out other sources of noise pollution? Some of these are:

1. Backyard/home businesses producing more than normal noise like metal fabrication shops, etc.;

2. Fighting cocks and other noisy animals (including dogs);

3. Street parties and wakes where people create noise;

4. Karaoke singing and other forms of amplified sound (whether outside or within the bounds of one’s property) above the ambient noise level or that “disturbs” or causes discomfort or annoyance to others beyond one’s property line;

5. Playing of loud music inside restaurants, stores and malls which make normal conversation impossible.
Finally, why limit the prohibition to the period from 8 p.m. till 8 a.m.? Noise pollution is still noise pollution between 8:01 a.m. and 7:59 p.m.

Noise pollution, like air pollution, causes slow death. It is like assault with a deadly weapon. It is a crime against life. Our lawmakers should get real.

—JOEY K. MONTALVO,
Nordson Green Earth Foundation,
115 Paseo de Roxas,
Bel Air IV, Makati City
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In connection with the above news, many residents of Baranggay Central I, Palompon, Leyte were so happy to learn that finally the BLITZ GRILL Beer and Grill located at Evangelista Street have been closed since Saturday, September 10, 2010.

Said establishment was a constant irritation to neighbors who has to endure the suffering every time they extend their operation to the wee hours of the morning causing most of them to suffer sleepless nights and tired bodies.

It was reported also that there are some customers who were able to bring inside the establishment their personal guns, when this is supposed to be taken by security personnel of establishments for safekeeping.

It was also claimed that some gun owners under the influence of liquor were able to illegally discharged their guns to the detriment of other law abiding customers who are just there to enjoy the night with friends, but instead were abused by these mindless critters.

Who knows, maybe other customers are also into drugs, provided that they are paying customers, the owners don't just give a damn even if what they're doing are illegal or not. "It is their concern, not ours"

In the last petition by residents of the said Baranggay, Mr. Charles Chiong, whose hotel establishment, is directly beside the protested Karaoke and Grill bar, complained that hotel guest cannot sleep due to the noise emanating from the said bar. Residents are just hoping that this is not temporary, especially if politics would enter the picture, then goodbye again to the community's wish for an undisturb and unpolluted environment

In a related action, the local LGU approved an ordinance last November 2009, "Prohibiting Nuisance in the Municipality of Palompon, Providing Penalties For Violators Thereof, and for Other Purposes" - authored by Mun. Councilor GILBERT MANONGSONG. A similar decision of the Supreme Court en banc was noted by the undersigned which I quote:

"EN BANC
G.R. No. L-17760 October 31, 1962
RAMCAR, INC., Petitioner, vs. EUSEBIO S. MILLAR, ET AL., Respondents.

REYES, J.B.L., J.: chanrobles virtual law library
Petitioner Ramcar Inc., operates and maintains an auto repair and body building shop at No. 1241 (formerly No. 1377) General Luna Street, Ermita, Manila, while the seven private respondents reside near or around the shop. Respondents brought an action before the Court of First Instance of Manila to abate the said establishment as a nuisance. That Court, after trial, dismissed the complaint, and not satisfied with the decision, the plaintiffs (respondents now) appealed the case to the Court of Appeals. The appellate court reversed the trial court's decision and entered judgment against Ramcar, Inc. as follows:
WHEREFORE, the decision of the lower court is hereby reversed and another one rendered declaring that the operation and maintenance of the establishment of the defendant corporation at No. 1241 (formerly No. 1377) General Luna St., Ermita, Manila, is a public nuisance and violates the provisions of Zonification Ordinance No. 2830, as amended by Ordinance No. 2906, of the City of Manila; ordering the defendants-appellees to remove the said establishment and all buildings and structures built therein within 30 days from the finality of this judgment; and, condemning defendant-appellee Ramcar, Inc., to pay plaintiffs-appellants the sum of P10,000.00 as special damages and P2,000.00 as attorney's fees, without costs in this instance".

I hope that our local business establishment will try to follow the law to the fullest or else the full force of the law will follow them whatever they do and wherever they go.

It can be gleaned from the above, that though the law is late in coming, it will surely catch up with them, whether they like it or not. Surely "karma" is the fruit of whatever you planted. The concerns of the many should always prevail against the concern of the few.

Big cities toxic to raising kids

2010-08-29T20:43:00.001-07:00

By DJ Yap
Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines—About 70 percent of the world’s population is expected to be living in cities by 2050. Some experts are concerned that as cities continue to grow and prosper, they become less and less habitable for families.

For some reason, people stop marrying and having children in places that are too urban, too congested or too expensive.

“There’s something really strange that’s going on right now,” said Joel Atkin, an internationally recognized expert on global economic, political and social trends.

“What’s happening to many cities is that they are no longer attractive to families,” he said at the closing plenary of the World Cities Summit held in Singapore last month. The summit was a meeting place for leaders to discuss the best ways and practices to make cities more livable.

Rich big cities like New York are witness to this phenomenon, and so have rich mid-sized cities like Singapore, Atkin said.

Metro Manila

Even Metro Manila, which has 11 million residents, does not seem to be an ideal place anymore for growing a family as it grapples with the same issues that beset many big, densely populated cities of the world: congestion, pollution, crime and poverty.

“Something in the way we’re building our cities and our society, but cities in particular, is making it toxic for the formation of families and raising children,” Atkin said.

“That’s why we have things called suburbs. That’s why people start off in Manhattan, get married and they move up to the Hudson Valley or they go to New Jersey, and they raise a family,” he said.

High cost, little space

Which is not to say most New Yorkers don’t want to stay in the city. “(But) they can’t afford to stay. They can’t have enough space to stay. And this seems to be the same thing that we’re hearing from people in Singapore—that they may stay but they never have children,” Atkin said.

The same could be said for Metro Manila. As people start to raise a family, they move to a neighboring province, like Rizal, Cavite, Laguna or Batangas where land is cheaper and the cost of living is much lower.

The question, then, is how do governments create dense urban spaces that can accommodate families? “(We have to know) how we can do that because what we’re building now is certainly not encouraging,” Atkin said.
This is probably the single biggest issue that cities must face down the road, in 10, 20 or 30 years “when our cities are overwhelmingly made up of people who are in their 60s, 70s and 80s,” he added.

Liu Thai Ker, chair of the Center for Liveable Cities Advisory Board and the master planner of Singapore, admitted that density was a big problem, especially for a city-state like Singapore, which has one of the thickest populations crammed into a tiny space.

Singapore has 5 million people and a land area of 702 square kilometers. (Metro Manila is about 636 sq m.)
But it is a problem that is not without a solution, he said.

Sociologists

Liu cited the experience of Singapore’s public housing sector, which had been planned with input from sociologists to determine what was best for the welfare of the families that would live there.
“When we started public housing, we had to plan ahead of people’s aspirations. Because in those days, all people wanted was a roof over their heads, nothing more. But we felt that that would be setting too low a standard, and it’s not good for the long term development of Singapore,” he said.

“We decided that we would not be building houses, we’re building communities. So that means we had to study what makes a community. What kind of territorial size should we devote for people to have a sense of belonging to this piece of land,” Liu said.

Singapore precinct

After a lot of surveys, it was determined that the smallest community unit was to be the precinct, which should be somewhere between three and five hectares, and the population should be around 700 to 1,000 families, he said.

The rationale was to make sure “you have enough variety of people there,” he said. In fact, Singapore’s public housing estate has a population that roughly approximates the national proportions of ethnicity, that is, the number of Chinese, Indians, Malays and other races in each building must correspond to the national average.
On top of that, each estate must only have one entry point. “Because these are urban people, they don’t really go out of their way to make friends with the neighbors, so what we tried to do was, in each precinct, we have only one entry point,” he said.

“So at least you can recognize their faces even if you don’t talk to them,” he added.
Liu said the sociologists also told him that people stop talking to each other with more than eight families in a block. So what they did was to put partitions in the corridor for every eight families.

“Six months later, I went to visit the families (in one block). I went to the first family, Chinese, all the other kids, Malay, Indian, followed into the living room. I went to another one. I went in—all other kids followed me. In fact, some of the neighbors followed me,” he said.

“My point is, even in sociology, there’s a possibility to look at a problem, analyze the problem, and find solutions, not just through design, (but) through a variety of means,” Liu said.
Intergenerational mixing

Atkin said another important feature that must not be absent in cities was intergenerational mixing.
“We must bring back multigenerational families, which have been the backbone of urban life from the very beginning. How can we get the older people and younger people together and have multigenerational neighbors?” he said.

Most cities want to build neighborhoods where everybody is 30 years old and stays out at 3 in the morning. “Then they’re gonna build senior housing so that all the old people are together,” he said.

“That, I think, is very socially destructive both for the old people and the young people,” Atkin said.
One good example of an intergenerational neighborhood is the community where his mother lives, he said.

“In this (New York) neighborhood, they did a very good job. They have the inner core, which is quite a few single people and elderly, and a lot of houses surrounded with families. You have, during the daytime, a lot of the elderly around, then at night, the kids are out. Then on weekends and Sundays, the families are out. So the same spaces are being used over and over again,” he said.

He recalled asking his mother, who was 87 years old, if she wanted to move to Florida with her sister and other people her age. His mother replied: “Oh, that’s for old people.”

Preschool, senior center

Citing another example, in Los Angeles, he said a preschool sits right next to a senior center. “That breaks down the sense of isolation (among the elderly). I think it’s unnatural for young people not to be with older people, and for older people to be deprived of young people,” he said.

But in the future, there may just be fewer and fewer young people in the most successful cities.

Stress, low fertility

Singapore has one of the lowest fertility rates in the world, something Atkin finds ironic, considering government efforts to make sure it can provide for families.

Housing in the city-state is heavily subsidized. Education is practically free and health services are universally accessible.

“So I asked myself, why aren’t the citizens making children? Were people so stressed, so busy and so competitive? (These are) all the things that made Singapore a great city, and many other cities like New York or San Francisco, a great city. But now it is producing a very strange effect—people are not having children,” he said.

“At this agency I was at, they couldn’t even get Singaporeans to date,” he said, eliciting laughter from the audience.

Atkin’s observations did not sit well with his hosts. After all, the summit, in some ways, was intended to celebrate urban lifestyles as much as it was to find solutions to the ailments that cities faced.

Mah Bow Tan, then Singapore’s minister for national development, said Atkin’s points were too simplistic, and that there might well be other sociological explanations for Singapore’s low birthrate.

“In cities like Singapore, and in many cities in Asia, I think high-density living is a necessity. Suburbs are a luxury and we get to make the best of them,” he said.

“If you look at the case of Singapore and visit a public housing estate, each town has about 200,000 people. In the town, there are schools, places of worship, work, transportation, shops and sports. Name it, we have it,” he said.

“Within this community of 200,000, we start to build flats, apartments which are comfortable, which can house a family of four, five people, three bedrooms, dining hall, and so on. And in each block, there are common spaces. The ground floor is open. Children can play. Where you can hold a wedding. If there’s a demise in the family, you can have a funeral. Or you can hold a concert, or put a child care center, you can put an elderly care center as well,” Mah said.

It is quite possible, he insisted, “to have livable, sustainable cities which are high-rise and high-density.”

Melbourne

Melbourne Mayor Robert Doyle pointed out that something was being forgotten in the debate: “We begin with people, but we very quickly move to buildings and densities, and these sorts of things.”

“You know,” he said, “when we think about our cities, the question we have to ask ourselves is why would a family come into the center of our city other than to lose and enjoy themselves?”

He said it was the role of city leaders to “activate” their city and make it attractive for all kinds of people to come visit and, perhaps, even move there to raise a family.

Comedy festival

In Melbourne, he said they are trying to accomplish this through festivals. “Whether it’s a comedy festival, or the arts festival or music festival, we actually pay extra money so that they can put on family-friendly and alcohol-free activities, like in the evening at 10:30, 11, midnight, 12:30, 1 in the morning,” he said.

“We often think about the buildings. To me, the important part is the fine grain. The important part is what happens on our streets, what happens when the buildings kick the footpath or the sidewalk, as somebody would say, and the activity that we generate there. That’s what will bring the people in,” he said.

Century of culture

Doyle said this is the “century of culture.” “It is the century of people, and that’s what we should be serving. So what we try to do is make it very attractive for families to come in. And you can actually plan for this.”
In the mid-1990s, Melbourne had only 400 dwellings in the central business district. “And the city decided, ‘we want people in our city, we want families in our city.’”

But the property developers were reluctant. “They said, ‘No, no, you can’t sell apartments to families in the middle of the city,’” Doyle said.

Residential flats

So, he said, the city took a commercial building, converted it into residential flats, and sold them to show the developers that they could have a commercial residential proposition in the middle of the city.
“And I believe Melbourne today, from that 400 dwellings in the middle 1990s, we now have 17,000, and that’s in the CBD, right in the center of the city,” Doyle said.

“So my answer just keeps coming back to people,” he concluded. “Why would people want to come to the center of your city? It will be different for all of us. But if you get them in there, I’ll tell you what, ‘you get a more vibrant city.’”

WORLD'S MEGACITIES

MEGACITY POPULATION(in millions)

1 Tokyo 35.68
2 New York-Newark 19.04
3 Mexico City 19.02
4 Mumbai 18.98
5 São Paulo 18.84
6 Delhi 15.92
7 Shanghai 14.99
8 Kolkata 14.79
9 Dhaka 13.48
10 Buenos Aires 12.80
11 LA-Long Beach-Santa Ana 12.50
12 Karachi 12.13
13 Cairo 11.89
14 Rio de Janeiro 11.74
15 Osaka-Kobe 11.29
16 Beijing 11.11
17 Manila 11.10
18 Moscow 10.45
19 Istanbul 10.06

Source: UN-HABITAT 2008; Data from UN Population Division, World Urbanization Prospects 2007; LAWRENCE DE GUZMAN, INQUIRER RESEARCH