As a culminating activity for the first semester of 2021, the Manila Bay Clean-up, Rehabilitation, and Preservation (MBCRP) Program held a back-to-back discussion on the Revised Sanitation Code of the Philippines and the proper management of infectious waste. Held on June 29, 2021 and conducted via Zoom, participants in the activity included NCR LGU representatives from City/Municipal Health Offices and City/Municipal Environment and Natural Resource Offices, as well as DILG-Field Office Cluster Heads and MBCRP focal persons.

In her remarks, Local Government Monitoring and Evaluation Division Chief Elsie H. Castillo said, “This will not be the last pandemic that we will face in our lives. We should always be ready for future crises, and how we act now determines how resilient we will be when the time comes.”

Experts from the Department of Health – Metro Manila Center for Health Development (DOH-MMCHD) and from the Mother Earth Foundation, an environmental NGO, went over the implementing rules and regulations of the Revised Sanitation Code of the Philippines and discussed the roles and responsibilities of Local Government Units (LGUs) and Health Authorities (HAs) in containing the spread of COVID-19. They emphasized the leading role of LGUs and HAs in the formulation of a sustainable Sewerage and Drainage Master Plan, and Local Sanitation Plan.

During the discussions, the speakers stressed the importance of proper waste management and good hygiene and sanitation practices not only to protecting people against COVID-19 infection, but to protecting the environment as well. The speakers highlighted the two categories of healthcare waste, and examples of each were presented in order to familiarize the attendees with them and provide guidance on what to do with such kinds of waste in their respective communities.

As most people do not realize the deleterious environmental impacts of traditional waste disposal practices such as the collect-and-dump-system, garbage hotspots (where garbage is placed at certain areas on the street), controlled dumpsites (a large designated area where garbage is dumped in huge volumes), or the burning of mixed waste, it is vital for LGUs and local health authorities to be equipped with the latest knowledge in proper waste management.#