Pasig River Master Plan completed

The PRRC, in collaboration with UP PLANADES, designed the Pasig River Integrated and Strategic Master Plan (PRISM) with a vision that by 2032, the Pasig River and its surrounding basins are resilient life-sustaining ecosystems that are able to support diverse human needs and biodiversity towards inclusive, harmonized, and balanced development co-managed by competent and adaptive institutions with responsible and empowered communities.

This new restoration strategy covers the following:

water quality management,
streamflow management,
catchment management, and
riparian management

In this manner, the Pasig River will once again enshrine socio-economic, aesthetic, environmental, recreational, and cultural values amidst changing risks and natural perturbations.

The illustrations below will provide a brief summary of the integrated wastewater treatment systems, one of the 19 priority projects proposed in the PRISM to help improve the water quality of the Pasig River, and for concerned agencies to comply with concession agreement, and other environmental laws.

North and south Pasig sewage treatment plan

The direct discharge of wastewater into the river system, like the Pasig River, causes serious impact on the quality of the environment and on the health of the people.

This project aims to:

capture the domestic wastewater in the areas of Pasig and part of Quezon City, Cainta, and Mandaluyong City and to be treated by STP,
help improve the water quality of the Pasig River
comply with the concession agreement and other environmental fees.

Program Description

Site location: Pinagbuhatan, Pasig
Location of program benefits: Pasig River (treating 100 MLD used water)
Components: 100 MLD STP 65km interceptor network
- Structural component:
  - construction of STP
  - laying of interceptor pipes
- Non-structural component
  - Manila Water’s Toka-Toka (stake), garbage segregation, sewer connection, and dislodging every 5 years
  - educational tours or “Lakbayan” to understand the water and wastewater processes
  - public information like flyers, posters, magazines, brochures, etc.
Beneficiaries:
- 2017: 300,000 population
- 2037: 658,392 population
- Area coverage: approx. 3,500 hectares
Benefits:
- treatment of used water generated within the catchment
- compliance with regulatory and environmental standards
Project completion:
- STP: EO 2018
- Sewer network: EO 2022

The filtration system for tributaries of the Pasig River

Sewage Treatment Plant (STP)

By 2037, the aim is to have a substantial reduction of sewerage and septage pollutants in the Pasig River System.

It is desired that the physico-chemical, biological, microbial, and heavy metal parameters measured at the Pasig River Unified Monitoring Systems (PRUMS) will not exceed the Philippine Standards for class C for freshwater category, especially for identified pollutants such as Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD), Total Nitrogen (TN), Total Phosphorus (TF), and Fecal Coliform Bacteria, among others.

The Philippine standard for class C is hoped to be achieved with no exceedances or even better water quality such as class B.