San Miguel Corporation (SMC) has expanded its Better Rivers PH cleanup program to Alabang River in Muntinlupa City, working with the local government and at no cost to the government. The initiative includes clearing obstructions and widening narrow sections of the waterway to ease flooding that has long affected nearby communities and critical roads.
In the two months since work began, SMC teams have cleared more than 26,000 tons of silt and waste from a 450-meter stretch of the river, starting at its mouth in Laguna de Bay and going upstream near Cupang Bridge.
These operations under SMC’s Better Rivers PH — the company’s voluntary cleanup program — are part of remedial measures after severe flooding last July 8 left motorists stranded for hours along South Luzon Expressway (SLEX).
A subsequent investigation found that Alabang River was already heavily silted and constricted that rainwater could not flow freely along the waterway. In addition, several sections of the river had been narrowed by informal structures and new construction.
These findings were shared with Muntinlupa City Mayor Ruffy Biazon, who then welcomed SMC’s deployment of dredging equipment to begin clearing the river a week after the July 25 meeting.
SMC has since been coordinating with the Muntinlupa City Engineering Office, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), and a nearby private subdivision on efforts to restore the river to its natural depth and width.
Newly installed sheet piles by a private contractor had to be removed as they were obstructing the flow of water along the channel. Later, efforts would have to include relocating informal settler families (ISFs) along the riverbanks through a well-coordinated relocation effort that ensures dignity and support for affected families.
“Our goal is to provide long-term solutions that would ease flooding for the city’s communities and critical roadways,” SMC Chairman and CEO Ramon S. Ang said. “We owe a great deal of gratitude to Mayor Ruffy Biazon for bringing together the concerned agencies to work with us on a comprehensive approach to solve the problem.”
For his part, Biazon also lauded the partnership as a crucial component of the city’s flood control strategy.
Since 2020, SMC’s Better Rivers PH initiative has helped ease flooding in Metro Manila and nearby provinces by removing a total of 8.6 million tons of silt and waste from 165 kilometers of rivers and tributaries at no cost to government.
Apart from Alabang River, SMC has ongoing cleanup operations that have so far removed 268,979 tons of debris from 5.9 km of Parañaque Rivers around NAIA; 256,920 tons from 2.8 km of Navotas Rivers; 479,278 tons from 6.2 km of San Pedro Rivers in Laguna; and 19,842 tons from Las Piñas River.
It also returned to Tullahan River recently, three years after completing a 10.9-kilometer cleanup in 2022 that cleared 1.12 million tons of silt and garbage from the river that spans Caloocan, Malabon, Navotas, Valenzuela and Quezon Cities. New surveys showed the river had again shallowed due to continuous siltation, garbage and construction upstream.
Earlier, SMC reported completing the cleanup of the Pasig, San Juan, Bulacan, Pampanga and Biñan river systems.
