As newly appointed chair of the Pasig River Rehabilitation Commission (PRRC), Environment Secretary Roy A. Cimatu has identified a number of interventions needed to begin the rehabilitation of this major tributary.

Cimatu led a technical inspection of Pasig River, along with Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) chair Danilo Lim, and officials of PRRC, Philippine Coast Guard and Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), running its length from Manila to Makati City.

An obvious violation along the river is the three-meter easement from riverbanks, which he said the MMDA and PRRC are now working on expropriating.

Based on Presidential Decree 1067, the Water Code of the Philippines, banks of rivers and streams and shores of seas and lakes throughout their entire length and within a zone of three meters in urban areas are subject to the easement of public use in the interest of recreation, navigation, floatage, fishing and salvage.

However, MMDA Resolution 3, series of 1996, adopts a uniform 10-meter easement from the existing shoreline, banks or streams along the Pasig River.

About a thousand informal settler families near Del Pan Bridge will also be relocated in coordination with the National Housing Authority.

The DENR chief said outfalls discharging wastewater into the river will be checked to monitor water quality, as well as illegal discharges.