San Miguel to Begin Tullahan River Clean up Project

The national and city governments, with the combined effort of the private sector, have begun the cleanup of the Tullahan-Tinajeros river located in Navotas and Malabon.

Mayors Antolin Oreta III of Malabon and Toby Tiangco of Navotas led the formal launch of the cleanup at Navotas Centennial Park.

The cleanup is part of a ₱1 billion investment aimed at widening the river by removing garbage and silt. The project will begin with dredging the river by using large-scale equipment from San Miguel Corp. (SMC)

SMC President Ramon Ang has stated that the equipment used in the cleanup project includes tugboats and dump trucks,  55-tonner cranes with barges, and backhoes with barges. This equipment will be placed near the river for dredging activities.

Ang has mentioned that the river system would need dredging to improve the problem of flooding in Bulacan for the New Manila International Airport, which is also a project under SMC.

Tiangco stated that there would be a need to maintain the cleanup of the 36.4-kilometer river system between Navotas and Malabon.

Department of Environment’s Secretary Roy Cimatu says that the river cleanup is a very much-needed step toward the rehabilitation of Manila Bay. This river system runs through the watershed of La Mesa and flows until the drains into Manila Bay.

Secretary Cimatu has also mentioned that the coliform level in the Tullahan-Tinajeros river system went down to an average coliform level of 29 million in 2019 from 269 million back in 2018 and then 10 billion back in 2017.

Source: Philstar