Reviving Our Ailing Rivers

In August 2022, San Miguel Corporation completed the Tullahan River cleanup initiative, after 27 months of operations. SMC was able to extract over 1.2 million MT of silt and solid waste from an 11-kilometer stretch of the river system, spanning four major cities. In partnership with the DENR, the project represented the largest river cleanup undertaken by any private company.

This accomplishment would only be outpaced in scale and scope a year later by our next initiative— the Pasig River cleanup. By February 2023, just 20 months into the project, we reached the one million MT milestone of silt and solid waste removed from the Pasig River, long a symbol of pollution and neglect in the Philippines.

We have also begun the clean-up of Bulacan’s Meycauayan river, to help alleviate perennial flooding.

Our river initiatives demonstrate SMC’s willingness to go beyond what is expected. While some of our projects are located along these rivers, our efforts to improve the health of our waterways are driven by our desire to positively impact the environment and the communities we serve. In particular, the wide-scale impacts of flooding and pollution on our cities and people have compelled us to take decisive action.

In a 2021 study published in OurWorldinData. org, the Pasig River emerged as the top plastics emitting river responsible for the world’s ocean plastics. Meanwhile, the Tullahan and Meycauayan Rivers are ranked four and five on that list. Four other Philippine rivers—the Pampanga, Libmanan, Rio Grande de Mindanao, and Agno rivers—also made it in the top 10 of that same global list.

Keeping our rivers clean will help reduce the amount of plastic waste that pollutes our oceans, improve water quality, support biodiversity, and mitigate threats to traditional fishing grounds. But just as important is deepening and widening them to mitigate decades of siltation and pollution that have rendered them unable to serve their purpose of directing flood waters away from our cities.

Fully rehabilitating our rivers will of course take more than just ridding them of silt and garbage. To transform our rivers into thriving ecosystems, it will require the collective efforts of various stakeholders, including government, communities, and private sector partners. While it seems like a daunting endeavor, taking the first steps toward restoration is a crucial part and one that SMC is more than willing to take.

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