Lim inaugurates newly-rehabilitated Estero de Paco

Manila Mayor Alfredo S. Lim inaugurated last night the newly-rehabilitated Estero de Paco in Manila in cooperation with the Kapit-Bisig Para sa Ilog Pasig and the ABS-CBN Foundation headed by Gina Lopez.

The said estero, stretching from Quirino Avenue all the way to Pedro Gil in Malate, Manila, had been cleaned up and now has running water, Lim said.

The easement had been adorned with beautiful flowers and is now passable to residents and may even pass for a promenade, he added.

The mayor said that the city-assisted project is a brainchild of Lopez, who has also committed to do the same with other esteros in the city, targeting the Estero de San Miguel near Malacanang as the next in line for rehabilitation.

City electrician Engr. Ernesto Cuyugan said that on the mayor's orders, the some 500-meter easement will also be adorned with the new LED lighting system which the city started utilizing only recently, owing to its cost-saving features thus making it safe for the public to pass through or stroll in the said beautified easement.

Lim thanked Lopez and the Kapit-Bisig group for choosing Manila as the beneficiary of their efforts to restore esteros to what they used to be, with clear, running waters.

Before the project was undertaken, Lim said a total of 250 squatter families living beside the Estero de Paco had to be relocated to Laguna. With the said families there, the mayor said the estero became their virtual dumping ground for their daily wastes, rendering it dead and all choked up with trash.

"Thanks to the effort of Gina Lopez and the other entities involved in this project, the Estero de Paco has come to life once again," Lim said. - manila.gov.ph — ARA