Bantay Dagat volunteers collect at an average of 1,200 sacks of garbage from Davao Gulf each month for 2019.
Paul Bermejo, Ancillary Services Unit (ASU) chief, said that the public should be more conscious about where they throw away their waste as it ends up on the Davao Gulf.
“This means that we still need improvement in terms of our discipline, especially that we are implementing the Solid Waste Management Ordinance,” he said.
He said they will recalibrate their efforts this year to put more focus on the education and awareness at the grassroots level. Their main aim is to reduce garbage at source.
“As much as possible, we are aiming for a piece of garbage, not sacks of it,” he added.
However, Bermejo said that the Bantay Dagat volunteers had a good start to the year so far.
“The collected garbage has been normalized. It only increased due to the habagat that hit the city. Big waves brought garbage to the city. But after that, we are able to normalize it,” he said.
The ASU is preparing modules as part of its education campaign. They will prioritize the barangays located upstream so that they refrain from throwing their wastes anywhere.
“Let us learn segregation and composting. I am advising each and everyone to learn also the implementation of reducing our thrown garbage in the streets, especially in our waters. We should respect our nature as it provides our needs, such as water and the air we breathe,” he said.
