Manila Bay is in the middle of rehabilitation, but that doesn’t mean it’s safe to swim in its murky waters.
Case in point, an 11-year-old girl almost drowned yesterday when she swam in the bay with her friends.
Unang Balita reported that the Grade 6 student is now in critical condition at the Manila Hospital where she was brought by the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority after she was saved from drowning.
Her mother Marivic Madilas said that the child kept throwing up and that her body has gone stiff due to the accident.
Madilas said that her daughter went swimming with her friends without her knowledge. She also said that she only learned about the accident after her daughter’s friends informed her that her child was already in the hospital.
According to RMN, the girl went swimming in Manila Bay because she thought that the water was clean. She ingested the bay’s dirty water when she almost drowned, reported ABS-CBN News.
At present, Madilas is asking the public for financial help so that she could pay off her child’s medical bills.
The girl is just one of the many people who have gone to Manila Bay to swim in it, despite the Department of Health’s (DOH) warning that the water wasn’t clean enough for swimming.
In a statement released by the DOH on Monday, it said: “While the clean-up is ongoing, the public is strongly advised to wait until the waters are deemed safe for recreational swimming.”
The DOH also warned the public that swimming in polluted waters can cause diarrhea, cholera, typhoid, dysentery, skin diseases, and eye infections.
Naglatag na ng orange barriers ang DPWH sa Baywalk sa Maynila. | via @jekkipascual pic.twitter.com/TVm9OUDmLT
— DZMM TeleRadyo (@DZMMTeleRadyo) February 6, 2019
Due to the deluge of people wanting to swim and hang out in Manila Bay, authorities today shuttered a section of the body of water. The Department of Natural Resources’ (DENR) Undersecretary Benny Antiporda told ABS-CBN News yesterday that the entire stretch of the Baywalk on Roxas Boulevard, from the US Embassy to the Manila Yacht Club, will be fenced off.
Manila Bay is a tourist attraction that has been destroyed by pollution in recent decades. Much of the garbage that flows into it comes from nearby provinces. To rehabilitate the body of water, the government launched a massive rehabilitation project called “Battle for Manila Bay.”
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