The Pasig River is a passing water that makes its way through the central urban section of Metro Manila. It is a rich body of water that helped give resources long before and during the Spanish colonial period (Sicat,2023). Looking now, it is quite the opposite. It has been neglected and heavily polluted; urbanization and industrialization played a massive part in the water quality. Untreated sewage and discharge have destroyed the quality of the water and the aquatic life that once lived there (Sicat, 2023).
What needs to be done is a change of thought about pollution, in this case water. For years, those living by the river have thrown away solid and liquid waste to the river.
It got to that point because of the lack of education and awareness of environmental conservation. There is also a lack of proper waste management as trash is still being dumped from the neighboring communities living by the river. It is their dumpster as they find it to remove their waste, “out of sight, out of mind mentality. ”
Previous Presidents of the Philippines have made many attempts to clean and restore the river. Now, the newest President, Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., is putting his foot down solemnly, swearing to make change in environmental issues in the country (Sicat,2023).
What is being done reflects what was found by Steg and Vlek. They describe four steps to promote behavior change for the environment’s sake (Gruman et al., 2016).
For this, an example would be water pollution; several issues exist. One matter that will be tackled is the trash thrown by the people living by the river.
(1) Change the urge to throw trash just because it is outside your house and it is convenient
(2) It is out there, and everyone thinks it is acceptable to copy what other people are doing to the river.
(3) Educating people on the importance of correctly throwing waste is a way to go and warning people of the danger that the water can never get better if they continue to do this behavior.
(4) An intervention that may be used would be the Theory of Planned Behavior; which focuses on the way in which attitudes and beliefs interact to create behavioral intentions and actions (Gruman et al., 2016).
Here, the Theory of Planned Behavior is a psychological theory that supports and calculates human behavior based on three key factors:
(1) attitude toward the behavior; To lessen trash in the river, people need to find a way to have a positive attitude toward not dumping in the river. As well as education and awareness campaigns may help adjust the mentality people have to highlight the negative environmental and social consequences of river pollution.
(2) subjective norm; having social pressure or approval from others regarding the behavior and support and encouraging the reduction of trash dumping can be a benefit for doing this behavior.
(3) perceived behavioral control, the ability to perform the behavior; they need to feel the commitment to improve the waste disrupting the river (Asare, 2015).
Piece by piece, if people start educating themselves about water pollution and seeing the benefits of having a reliable water source again, the Pasig River can flourish again. Overcoming years of deep rooted habits and the convenience of thoughtless disposal will be challenging, but the irreversible consequences of continued neglect should serve as a wake-up call. Hopefully, people’s eyes can open, and with what the President said will take into action t cleanse the river and with the help of the theory of planned behavior advise, little by little, the river’s condition can be better.
Sources:
- Asare, M. (2015). Using The Theory of Planned Behavior to Determine the condom use Behavior among College Students. American Journal of Health Studies, 30(1), 43–50. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4621079/#:~:text=The%20Theory%20of%20Planned%20Behavior%20(TPB)%20was%20developed%20by%20Icek,behavioral%20control%20influence%20behavioral%20intention.
- Gruman, J. A., Schneider, F. W., & Coutts, L. M. (2016). Applied Social Psychology (3rd ed.). SAGE Publications, Inc. (US). https://bookshelf.vitalsource.com/books/9781506353968
- Sicat, A. (2023). Pasig River: A Historical Waterway of Cultural Significance. https://pia.gov.ph/features/2023/07/31/pasig-river-a-historical-waterway-of-cultural-significance
Hi there! Nice entry, it calls attention to a problem that plagues many rivers and waterways.
Changing the mindset on pollution is crucial and people’s behaviors are heavily influenced by norms. It sounds like inadequate waste management on a city level is influencing the behavior norms of the population. Those who don’t live by the river just want their trash gone and those who live by the river seem to have little recourse to prevent others from dumping. They may even contribute to the dumping. I believe the first line of business is to improve waste systems in the city and simultaneously begin the education and sign campaigns. If you recall from Gruman et al. (2016) placing prominent signs that note how damaging the pollution is will likely do little to prevent the problem. Signs like this only call attention to the descriptive norm that everyone is dumping in the river. One way to increase the saliency of norms is by incorporating persuasive normative messages (De Groot et al., 2013). So some new messaging to influence better care of the river could include “Join your fellow citizens in helping to save the Pasig River.”
De Groot, J. I. M., Abrahamse, W., & Jones, K. (2013). Persuasive normative messages: The influence of injunctive and personal norms on using free plastic bags. Sustainability, 5(5), 1829–1844. https://doi.org/10.3390/su5051829
Gruman, J. A., Schneider, F. W., & Coutts, L. M. (2016). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems. SAGE Publications.
It is truly a shame the amount of people who are so careless about the environment around them. Seeing how beautiful and helpful natural resources like rivers are should be enough to encourage citizens to take care of their homes, but unfortunately it is not. The Pasig River was so full of garbage and waste that is what deemed “biologically dead” in the 1990’s according to an exerpt form Climate Links. After this declaration, a rehabilitation team formed to help restore the once clean river.
The Pasig River has high historical and cultural significance to The Philippines as well as the common benefits of water transportation, drainage, fishing, and more. I agree with your perspective that the river deserves to be taken care of and the people that live in the area should be properly educated on how to do so. It can be inferred that most residents dispose of their waste into the river because it is easy, as you said, but I doubt that they are aware of the damage that they are doing. After decades of trying to bring back the healthy flowing waters, the Pasig River deserves a second chance.
Water pollution is a serious issue all around the world, with the Pacific Ocean being the most polluted body of water worldwide (Howell, 2021). This is a very serious issue because the harmful substances contaminating the water are not only depleting our natural resource, but also destroying ecosystems. The majority of bodies of water connect to others, like the Pasig River flowing into Manila Bay and Laguna de Bay, therefore spreading the bacteria and waste. The best way to combat this dilemma would be to design an intervention with the goal of decreasing water pollution and encouraging people to care for the sources of water that we have left. Activities in this intervention could include cleaning up local rivers, lakes, and oceans, meeting and caring for local sea life, and other tasks involving education and practice.
Overall, something must be done to combat water pollution before it contaminates all of the natural water sources in the world. Some areas of the world, like Flint Michigan, have been having severe issues acquiring safe drinking water for years, and that could happen to many other places if many humans do not change their mindset soon!
References:
Pasig River: A historical waterway of cultural significance. PIA. (n.d.). https://pia.gov.ph/features/2023/07/31/pasig-river-a-historical-waterway-of-cultural-significance
Written by Beth Howell, Written by: Beth Howell Content Manager Beth has been writing about green tech, Beth Howell Content Manager, Manager, C., & Beth has been writing about green tech. (n.d.). The 11 most polluted bodies of water around the world. The Eco Experts. https://www.theecoexperts.co.uk/blog/the-most-polluted-bodies-of-water