The beautification of Manila city has been going on for a while starting from the dispersal of street vendors around the city, to repainting old underpass ways, and the renovation of the Lagusnilad underpass.
This process of “beautification” in districts, even cities, that screams “poverty” at first sight is not something new. We have seen Makati do it, as well as Taguig. Now, when we think of these places, the picture that comes into mind is high-rise building, market, commerce, business, and art.
But behind this facade of towering buildings hide a poverty-smeared community that little to nobody wants to acknowledge. These cities have made a name for themselves as clean, organized, and disciplined at the expense of others. Manila, under the incumbent mayor, is on the way to becoming one of those cities.
Every one of those processes of beautification within Manila were met with uproar and distaste, but the loudest of them all was the dumping of white sands on Manila bay in the name of “rehabilitation.”
In the early days of September this year, the Department of Environmental and Natural Resources started the process of shipping and dumping “white sand” in an area in Manila Bay. The white sand, called dolomite sourced all the way from Cebu, was meant to make Manila Bay look “clean” after years of being notorious for its polluted waters.
In a time when the Covid-19 pandemic is keeping the economy at the mercy of recession and the health sector barely making it work — what with the limited resources and funding — spending over PHP389 million to dump artificial sand over only a portion of Manila bay got everyone heated.
Why could it not be used for mass testing? For additional Personal Protective Equipment? For funding Covid-19 centers? For funding a better health care system?
We acknowledge that every government department has its own job and projects to attend to and that it should not halt despite the virus, but it also should not take precedent over more pressing matters.
Could it not wait until everything subsided? If the problem was the pollution and the irresponsible solid waste disposal, then why was this not addressed instead? A program for better solid waste management for the people within the area, or even a better clean up system, which, with common sense, will cost a lot cheaper.
This “beach nourishment project” is nothing but a band aid solution and is bound to fail in the long run.
First of all, the dolomite sand is not healthy, the Department of Health said, as it poses risk to the respiratory system and could cause eye irritation as well. The Philippines is in the Pacific and receives at least 20 typhoons a year which could cause the dolomite sand to get washed away in the process, further proving that it could not, or would be hard to sustain.
Additionally, even if it’s white and looking pretty now, even going as far as claiming that it could improve mental health, it could not erase the population of poverty-stricken constituents of the city. Despite the efforts to beautify it, if the residents are not disciplined enough to sustain this facade, then ultimately, this project is bound to fail.
As part of the working class, we just wasted PHP389 million, and another hundreds of millions for 2021, when it continues its “rehabilitation.”
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