Marikina and Parañaque—two cities in Metro Manila—were recently named as among the environmentally sustainable cities in Southeast Asia.
Marikina won in the 5th Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Environmentally Sustainable City, achieving the highest scores in clean air, land, and water through assessments conducted by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
Some of the highlights that led to Marikina’s citation included:
- The city’s air quality is withing the standards of the US Environmental Protection Agency.
- Access to water infrastructure, provided by the city’s water concessionaire Manila Water, is at 100% of Marikina’s households.
- More than 70% of the city’s households and industries are linked to two existing wastewater treatment facilities.
- Solid waste management is at 100% collection of household wastes through a door-to-door system and 100% waste transportation via covered vehicles
- The city’s green spaces (515.61 hectares) exceeds the World Health Organization standards (428.20 ha) for a healthy living (9.5 m2 green space per capita).
Parañaque received the certificate of recognition under the “Big Cities, Clean Land” category. This
The award was given to Parañaque “because of its systematic implementation of solid waste segregation in the whole city.”
Parañaque has strictly implemented the segregation at source and collection of segregated solid wastes across its 16 barangays.
With its efforts to minimize the solid waste disposal in the sanitary landfill and the establishment of the City Materials Recovery Facility and “Zero Plastics sa Landfill” gave edge to why the city was able to maintain the generated solid waste in to its minimum.
The 5th ASEAN Environmentally Sustainable Cities and 4th Certificate of Recognition awarding ceremony were held on October 21, 2021 in Jakarta, Indonesia. Noel Rodriguez, third secretary of the Permanent Mission of the Philippines, received the Plaque of Award while delegates from the local government unit of Parañaque attended vi
