Cleanliness as form rather than substance

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The problem with many of the people who are in power in our country today is that they see cleanliness as a matter of form rather than substance. Amid environmental crises that require meaningful

and urgent action, they insist on embarking on projects that, while highly visible and even popular, are useless in sustainability and in substantively addressing our ecological problems, from solid waste management in our cities to the deforestation all over the country that is imperiling communities and biodiversity alike.

The “beach nourishment project”—which came at the expense of quarrying a mountain in Cebu to extract an initial 7,000 metric tons, and millions of pesos in taxpayer money—was ruinous from the beginning, with its transportation damaging corals in Alcoy, Cebu, and its opening in the middle of a pandemic causing a gathering of people that violated the government’s own quarantine rules.

“It passed the environmental impact assessment!” DENR officials thundered, notwithstanding concerns from the scientific community that, as the Institute of Environmental Science and Meteorology put it, the dolomite beach “is not cost effective and in the long run, environmentally damaging.” Other scientists warned that such “cosmetic beautification” will only temporarily hide—not solve—the problem of urban pollution, instead recommending that the government invest in rehabilitating mangroves.

 

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