Waste Mismanagement

Ever wonder where our wastes go? We don't see them at all after using the comfort rooms. We just assume that they go somewhere where they could not harm us. We think that they are taken cared of. 

Usually, homes and establishments are equipped with a sewage system. The sewage system catches all of our wastes. But sewage systems are not bottomless. After some years, they over flow. If not managed, they seep through the soil around and most probably would find their way in aquifers. Aquifers are some of the sources of our water supply, including drinking water. Therefore, if we let our wastes mix with our source of water, dangers to health may occur.

Sewage companies offer the service of emptying sewage systems in homes and establishments. But what do they do with it? How do they dispose them. The best way should be to process them so that the water maybe used again. Solids separated from them maybe used as fertilizers. However, there were some reports and discoveries that they had not been disposed well. The sludge were being disposed in canals or rivers. The purpose is therefore defeated. The sludge will go back to the soil and to the aquifers.

(From left, Ms. Jhoanna B. Mendoza, Facility Manager, Fr. Benny Tuazon, and Mr. Rene Almendras, Group Director for Business, Manila Water Inc.)

I had visited two sewage treatment plants. And there, were shown how water from human wastes maybe processed and be used again. We were told that nature could actually do it. It can heal and refresh itself. But because of too much concentration of wastes in an area, the demand is just too much to address. Human intervention is thus necessary. Sewage Treatment Plants provide this assistance. Not only are we able to use the water again, provide good fertilizers, but also prevent possible diseases. So far, Manila is only recovering 16 percent of its sewage. The goal is 100 percent so that our system will be effective. I know that private companies are doing their share in this. Manila Water Company Incorporated had in fact made this as part of their commitment to its clients. So much investment had been flowed into it with little or no profit at all. Their concern for the environment is what inspires them to go on.

In the light of the importance of this activity, government should be the leader in seeing to it that our sewage system is effective. Citizen awareness must be heightened so that the work will be easier. Private companies must be responsible in disposing the wastes. 

So, even if we do not see them, let us see to it that they are well taken cared of!