International Coastal Cleanup - Philippines, Southern Leyte
Added to website: 26 October 2003
In coordination with the Municipality of Malitbog (Southern Leyte, Philippines) Coral Cay Conservation (CCC) participated in this year’s Project AWARE International Cleanup Day. It was the first Project Aware Clean Up Event conducted in the Municipality. The cleanup included the river ways and 13 km of shore. In addition to the land cleanup, divers in the barangay Cabul-anonan and in Town Proper carried out underwater cleanups. On the same day, similar activities were conducted throughout the Province. Malitbog, however, was one of the few municipalities that performed the data collection under guidelines issued by Project AWARE and the Ocean Conservancy.
The day began with an opening ceremony at the Municipal Hall of Malitbog and, after an opening speech from the Mayor of Malitbog, Mayor Norma L. Go, and CCC Expedition Leader, Stephan Becker, the one-day-long event began. Participants of all ages and professions were present; Local Government Officers (LGO’s), barangay officials and school students. They had all come with the same goal in mind- to remove rubbish from their marine environment. They had taken care to prepare for the day’s activities; some with gloves, some with brushes and some with sun hats. While this diverse group was working away on shore, gathering and removing debris, CCC undertook an underwater cleanup involving three buddy pairs of SCUBA divers within close proximity of Town Proper. Mayor Go joined the CCC team on the boat during the underwater cleanup session. CCC attracted further publicity from the local radio station, which broadcasted news of the event during the day.
Debris from the 37 barangays was collected and brought to Town Proper where the rubbish was sorted into and weighted in the different categories specified by Project AWARE and the Ocean Conservancy. A total of 1037 kg of rubbish was removed from Malitbog; 817 kg of debris from the shores and river ways and 210 kg of debris from beneath the surface.
The majority of the debris was collected from beaches and river ways; plastic bottles, shoes, clothes and bottles. Bottle caps, batteries, fishing line, fishing nets and tyres were found submerged. Glass beverage bottles contributed the most in weight proportionally to the collected debris; 556 kg of glass beverage bottles were collected. Beverage cans were second in the ranking; 133.5 kg of cans were collected.
The category “Shoreline and Recreational Activities” contributed the highest amount of rubbish; over 700 kg of rubbish was collected.
