Looking after the future

Metro Manila's sewerage system is one of the worst in Asia. We do not have sewers, only drains. Which means that we do not have a centralized sewage treatment plant either and that is why our rivers are all dead. The government-owned public utility company Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS), which was supposedly responsible for water distribution and sewerage but did poorly in both counts, was privatized in 1997. Manila Water holds the concession for the eastern half of the metro, which includes Quezon City, where my husband and I live and work. During its first decade, its main concern was to get water to those areas which still didn't have running water and to plug all the wasteful leaks in the system. It has done quite well with those particular tasks and, at the start of its second decade, it began the even bigger task of getting a proper sewage system in place. It has finally reached our barangay and we've been living with the noise of jackhammers for several weeks now. This is what the road which connects to our street looked like last week and our own street will look like it sometime in the near future. We're not complaining, and I have not heard of anyone in our neighborhood complaining either, which I think is wonderful. It will take a long time, but there is hope for Metro Manila's rivers and waterways yet.