Eco-chic:

Cry Me A River

By Pepin

Rivers would usually make a perfect backdrop for any romantic moment. But today, avaricious people look at them as perfect dumping sites.

Old tires, broken dolls, tattered diapers, and rusty cans are all over Iloilo River. You name any kind of garbage and it is there, floating or jammed on a pongy mud. Not to mention the various kinds of flies and mosquitoes breeding on the dumpy loam. Anyone who has a delicate sense of smell would easily purge out because of the stink that is extremely indefinable.

Who on earth couldn’t resist to slaughter rivers like this that made it possible for commercial trade, sources of livelihood, channels of transportation, and hotspots for leisure-time activities to flourish for centuries? Undoubtedly, only those with vile hearts have the guts to wreck these precious creations and turn them into a nightmare.

If the dumping activities wouldn’t stop, and if all people will not provide measures to clean Iloilo River and other dying rivers in the world, it won’t be long for fishes, mangroves, and other valuable living organisms to perish. Estuaries will be clogged up and more diseases, including those that are resistant to modern-day therapies, will begin to proliferate. Give it ten to twenty years more and all of these unexpected perils will ensue.

There are 1,001 ways to clean a river. We can hold a “Clean-up Drive” for a week and encourage different sectors in the society to participate. We can also ask our legislators to enact stricter laws that prohibit waste disposals in the river banks. We can also march on the streets and demand for factories and other establishments to shut down their pipes, which drain dirty waste water. Or we can campaign and raise funds for river improvements and further research studies that will look into other concrete ways and means on how we can save these dying bodies of water. We can do all of these things, because “We can!”

Since we still have time left, let’s do everything we can to save our rivers before anything worse will happen.