Kabataang Kabalikat para sa Kalikasan seminar
Kabataang Kabalikat para sa Kalikasan
By Chot Velasquez, CENRO staff
“Protect and preserve our environment”. This is the message of Mayor Guia G. Gomez to the members of the Sangguniang Kabataan or SK (youth council) of the 21 barangays in the City of San Juan.
In line with Mayor Gomez’s call, an orientation seminar on environmental protection and preservation dubbed “Kabataan Kabalikat para sa Kalikasan” was held last June 1, 2011 at the San Juan city Multi-Purpose Hall, from 8:30 am until 5pm with the SK councils from district 1 and 2 in attendance. Three speakers delivered the presentations on environmental protection and management.
Former city councilor Dante Santiago, now the Chief of the City Environment and Natural Resources Office (CENRO), explained the environmental laws being enforced by the CENRO in the city, namely: the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act, Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act and the Toxic Substances and Hazardous and Nuclear Waste Act. He also mentioned the environmental city ordinances, and programs being implemented by Mayor Gomez like the “Tapat Ko, Linis Ko” program, to be re-launched as part of the observance of the World Environment Day every June 5 of each year. He further encouraged the young leaders to enact ordinances for the youth in their communities.
CENRO technical staff Chot Velasquez discussed the Maytunas Creek before and after the CENRO initiated clean up in November 2010. He pointed out that water from the creek becomes polluted because people throw their wastes into it and “wastewater coming from the houses also ends up in the creeks either directly or through septic tank discharging into the drainage”.
Velasquez explained that the filthy water flowing in the creek discharges to the San Juan River which in turn drains to the Pasig River and eventually, the Manila Bay. During high tide, the water from Manila Bay flows back through the Pasig River and reaches the Laguna Lake.
“The 12-kilometer San Juan River, which starts at Barangay Culiat in Quezon City and ends in Mandaluyong, is the dirtiest major tributary of the dying Pasig River,” said Velasquez. “These filthy waters end up in Manila Bay and Laguna where we get our supply of fish.”
Engr. Tony Banay, the senior technical staff and third speaker, delved on the problem of ozone depleting substances and global warming. He explained how substances like the chlorofluorocarbon or CFC harms the ozone layer of the earth’s atmosphere. The ozone layer, according to Banay, is made up of oxygen gases and protects us from the harmful ultraviolet rays coming from the sun and once depleted, a hole is formed and it allows the ray to hit our skin directly causing damages not only to humans but to the environment as well.
Banay urged SK council members to do their share in protecting and preserving the environment saying “the SK should prove that you are worthy of the trust and confidence of those who elected you as leaders of the youth.”