Young Volunteers Revive Dying Creek in the Philippines
Volunteers worked hard to clean up the river week after week. Photos: Courtesy of Angat Kabataan
A group of young volunteers took on the challenge of saving the dying Maningning Creek in the Philippine town of Taytay, Rizal and inspired entire communities to follow suit.
The 3-kilometer Maningning Creek traverses four barangays or villages in Taytay, a town in Rizal province. It once served as the people's source of food and livelihood as well as a site for recreational activities. The creek was teeming with carp, mudfish, tilapia, and other marine life.
Nobody seemed to notice the slow degradation of Maningning (literally "bright") over the years. What once was a pleasant sight to behold became a receptacle of garbage.
In 2009, when the floods brought by Typhoon Ondoy (internationally known as Ketsana) ravaged the town, a group of young people took notice of Maningning's state of decline and decided to turn things around.
"After Typhoon Ondoy, we realized how big a problem flooding is in Taytay. We knew we had to do something about it," said Tobit Cruz, co-founder of youth volunteer group Angat Kabataan. "We looked at the different waterways of the province and saw that Maningning Creek was in dire need of rehabilitation."
Angat Kabataan had only four volunteers at the start, all below 25 years old, but they immediately went to work, clearing the area, planting bamboo trees, and using Bokashi balls to treat wastewater - the term Bokashi refers to the Japanese way of composting.
Mobilizing the community
Cruz recounted how impassioned they were to take on the task of restoring Maningning, only to be overwhelmed by everything that needed to be done.
"We had no budget to work with. We wrote letters to everyone we knew had a stake in the salvation of the creek."
- Tobit Cruz, co-founder of youth volunteer group Angat Kabataan
"We had no budget to work with. Instead, we wrote letters to everyone we knew had a stake in the salvation of the creek. We wrote to the local government, NGOs, and even to government agencies, such as the Laguna Lake Development Authority and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources," said Cruz.
Ironically, Cruz said their greatest challenge was getting the support of the community, as many felt that Maningning Creek was beyond repair.
When Angat Kabataan gained a few more volunteers, they decided to start a campaign to get different sectors of society involved. Support for the youth's initiative both from residents and nonresidents, and public and private groups soon came and the state of Maningning Creek began to improve.
"Beyond the visible physical improvements of the creek, we consider getting everyone involved as our biggest achievement," Cruz said. "Now, you can see that each household has their own set of cleaning materials and the community holds cleanup sessions voluntarily."
More in store for the youth
Angat Kabataan also maintains livelihood projects, including a 1-kilometer vegetable garden along the creek and the production of Bokashi balls, which are used to treat the creek's dirty water. These projects employ barangay residents, including 15 mothers who make the Bokashi balls from clay, fermented rice bran, and molasses.. The balls contain microorganisms that break down sludge. Angat Kabataan also markets this technology for profit and the income goes straight to the barangay.
Cruz shares that they are now looking at adopting more creeks in Rizal province and possibly in Mindanao. The group recently won a $10,000 grant and gained partners from member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) who committed to helping them rehabilitate creeks. The success of Angat Kabataan's model is also now being adopted in Cambodia, Lao, Malaysia, and Viet Nam.
"Given the right support of different stakeholders, young people can really bring about positive impact in terms of community development," said Cruz. "We're going to be the next generation affected. We cannot not do anything about it today."