The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and the Ocean Clean Up signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) to collaborate in rehabilitating the Manila Bay region. 

Signing the Memorandum of Agreement on Thursday, the agency and the Netherland-based non-profit organization partnered to a five-year agreement in removal of floating wastes in major rivers entering the Manila Bay. 

“This agreement with DENR brings together local leadership and global expertise to accelerate action in one of the world’s most important coastal regions.”

“By combining research, data and operational experience, we can identify where our technology will have the greatest impact and help stop the plastic before it reaches Manila Bay and the Ocean”, Founder and Chief Executive Officer Boyan Slat said. 

The DENR, meanwhile, reported that the technologies of the Ocean Clean Up are expected to be adapted in the Pasig River for the collection of the heavy and continuous waste load in the waterbody. 

“The Pasig River has carried the burden of our consumption habits for far too long. We cannot allow this river to remain a pipeline of plastic to the ocean”, Secretary Juan Miguel Cuna said.

“This agreement [with the Ocean Clean Up] is a decisive step toward breaking the cycle”, he added. 

The Ocean Clean Up founder said that the organization is willing to help the government with existing initiatives in addressing water pollution in the Philippines. 

“For the Ocean CleanUp, we found that around 4,000 tons of plastics are entering the ocean and the Manila Bay through these rivers of the region”.

“We are very excited to work together with the authorities [DENR] to amplify existing efforts [wherein] in the next few years, [we] have a major impact on massively reducing the amount of plastic that is entering the ocean”, Slat said in a media interview.

The organization revealed that it has surveyed nearly 100 sites in the country with the first interceptor barrier to be deployed in the Meycauayan River in Bulacan.