8/11/2019 Philippines Water Action: Young Volunteers Revive Dying Creek by Chely Esguerra

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Country Water Action Philippines

Young Volunteers Revive Dying Creek

  Water and Yougust 2014

Rizal Province, Philippines – A group of young volunteers took on the challenge of saving the dying Maningning Creek inthe town of Taytay and inspired entire communities to follow suit.

Reviving Maningning  Maningning (literally, bright) Creek is a 3 kilometer bodyof water that traverses 4 barangays (villages) in Taytayand once served as the people’s source of food andlivelihood as well as a venue for recreational activities.Nobody seemed to notice its slow degradation overthe years. What once was a pleasant sight to beholdbecame a receptacle of garbage, consequently relievingit of its capacity to grow carp, mudfish, tilapias, andother marine life.

In 2009, when the floods brought by Typhoon Ondoyravaged the town, a group of young people took noticeof Maningning’s state of decline and decided to turnthings around.

“After Typhoon Ondoy, we realized how big a problemflooding is in Taytay. We knew we had to do somethingabout it,” said Tobit Cruz, co-founder of youth volunteergroup Angat Kabataan. “We looked at the differentwaterways of the province and saw that Maningning

Creek was in dire need of rehabilitation.”

 Angat Kabataan consisted of only 4 volunteers, all ofthem below 25 years old, but they immediately wentto work, persisted and pushed on with their cleanups,planting of bamboo trees, and using Bokashi balls intreating wastewater.

Mobilizi ng Communit y

Cruz recounts how impassioned they were to takeon the huge task of restoring Maningning, only to beoverwhelmed by everything that needed to be done.

“We had no budget to work with. Instead, we wroteletters to everyone we knew had a stake in the salvationof the creek. We wrote to the local government, NGOs,and even to government agencies such as the LagunaLake Development Authority and the Department ofEnvironment and Natural Resources,” recounts Cruz.

Ironically, Cruz said their greatest challenge wasgetting the support of the community, as many felt thatManingning Creek was beyond repair. When AngatKabataan successfully gained a few more volunteers,they decided to start a campaign to get different sectorsof society involved.

Support for the youth’s initiative both from residents andnon-residents, and from public and private groups soon

came and Maningning Creek began to improve.

“Beyond the visible physical improvements of the creek,we consider getting everyone involved as our biggestachievement,” Cruz said. “Now, you can see that eachhousehold has their own set of cleaning materials andthe community holds voluntarily clean-up sessions.”

8/11/2019 Philippines Water Action: Young Volunteers Revive Dying Creek by Chely Esguerra

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More in Store for the Youth 

 At present, the group maintains livelihood projects,including a one-kilometer vegetable garden along thecreek and the production of Bokashi balls, which areused to treat the creek’s dirty water. These projects

employ barangay residents, including 15 motherswho make the Bokashi balls from clay, fermented ricebran, and molasses. Bokashi refers to the Japaneseway of composting and these composted balls containeffective microorganisms that break down sludge. AngatKabataan also markets this technology for profit, whichgoes straight to the barangay.

Cruz shares that they are now looking at adopting morecreeks in Rizal and potentially another body of water inMindanao. The group also recently won a US$10,000grant and gained partners from ASEAN countries whocommitted to helping them rehabilitate creeks. The

success of Angat Kabataan’s model is also now beingadopted in Cambodia, Lao, Malaysia, and Viet Nam.

“Given the right support of different stakeholders, youngpeople can really bring about positive impact in terms ofcommunity development,” assures Cruz. “We’re goingto be the next generation affected. We cannot not doanything about it today.” 

This Country Water Action was written by Chely Esguerra, Social Media Specialist on

the Youth Initiative, ADB NGO and Civil Society Center. A slightly different version was

published on the ADB Water for All website.

 ADB Water for All’s Country Water Action series showcases reforms and good practices

in the water sector undertaken in ADB’s member countries. It offers a mix of experience

and insights from projects funded by ADB and those undertaken directly by civil society,

local governments, the private sector, media, and the academe. The Country Water

 Actions are regularly featured in ADB’s Water for All News enewsletter, which coverswater sector developments in the Asia and Pacific region.

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