WHAT YOU DON’T KNOW WILL HURT YOU

SOMETHING SMELLS

By: Lourdes Ledesma

  In my first article I focused on the plastic bag, as an endless source of non-biodegradable garbage that is causing floods, clogging drains, littering roads, rivers, beaches, and threatening our lives, as well as killing sea creatures. It is a polymer, made from petroleum-based compounds and developed in the laboratory. Its discovery and subsequent development into various forms and uses have given rise into a giant industry, in the fields of construction, medicine, household supplies, food and beverage, etc. It is most familiar to us in the many forms of packaging, storage containers of food and beverage products, medical and household supplies, housing of appliances, and even parts of vehicles and construction materials. Mostly, they have replaced glass and metal and natural materials such as wood.

No one can deny the multiple uses and indispensable convenience brought about by the use of plastic products. While my ultimate concern is the eventual proper disposal of these plastic products when their use is over, I would like to give some basic information on the kinds of plastics in use today for specific products, as well as the danger in their misuse, and the toxicity in certain types. The discerning consumer or shopper must become aware of the environmental and health risks arising from the widespread use of plastics.

Not all plastic containers are labeled and a recycling symbol on a product doesn’t always mean it is recyclable. These are the kinds of plastics used:

#1 -PETE – Polyethylene terephthalate ethylene – used for soft drink, juice, water, detergent cleaner and peanut butter containers.

#2 -HDPE – High density polyethylene – used in opaque plastic milk and water jugs, bleach, detergent and shampoo bottles and some plastic bags.

#3 -PVC – Polyvinyl chloride- used for cling wrap, some plastic squeeze bottles, cooking oil and peanut butter jars, detergent and window cleaner bottles. PVC poses risks both to human health and the environment, and is also the least recyclable plastic.

#4 -LDPE – Low density polyethylene – used in grocery store bags, most plastic wraps and some bottles.

#5 -PP – Polyprophylene – used in most Rubbermaid products, yogurt and syrup containers, straws and other clouded plastic containers.

#6 -PS – Polystyrene – used in Styrofoam food trays, egg cartons, disposable cups, bowls, carryout containers and opaque plastic cutlery.

#7 -Polycarbonate – used in most clear plastic baby bottles, water bottles, sport water bottles, metal food can liners, “sippy” cups and clear plastic cutlery.

Health Risks:

         Leaching occurs when plastic comes in contact with oily or fatty foods during heating, and from scratched or old plastic. It means, some molecules come free from the plastic and bond to the food or beverage it touches. PVC, polystyrene and polycarbonate have been shown to leach toxic chemicals…Do not heat foods with cling wrap, or on polystyrene foam containers in the microwave.  Avoid heating food and drinks in plastic cups or plates, unless labeled “microwave safe”. Use glass or ceramic containers with no metal paint on them. Bring your own “take home” containers to food stores.

Polystyrene is toxic to the brain and nervous system and has been found to adversely affect red blood cells. PVC cling wrap contains DEHA, a softener, which is linked to negative effects on the kidney, liver and bone formation. Dioxin, a known carcinogen, is a by-product of PVC manufacturing, and has been found in the air near factories and from burning of PVC products in garbage dumps. It settles on grasslands and accumulates in meat and dairy products, and ultimately in human tissue. Bisphenol A (BPA) can leach from polycarbonate plastic and has been shown to stimulate prostate cancer cells.

Most clear water bottles and baby bottles and training cups are made from polycarbonate. Examples of these baby bottles are those made by Avent, Evenflo, Playtex, Vent Aire, to name a few. If they start showing signs of wear – scratches, cloudy crackled appearance – discard them. Safer alternatives made by the same companies are of polyethylene and polypropylene (pastel and opaque). Water bottles from PETE and HDPE plastics are recommended for single use only. For all types of plastic, you can reduce bacterial contamination by thoroughly washing daily, but do not use strong detergents, which may break down the plastic and start chemical leaching. For food and beverage containers, avoid PVC, polystyrene and polycarbonate  plastics. (Source: Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, Minneapolis, Minn.,U.S.A.)

Environmental risks are water pollution from chemical leaching in garbage dumps and air pollution from incineration of discarded plastics. Both translate into human health risks when they contaminate the food we eat and the water we drink. Animals and ocean creatures are likewise affected.

      In terms of waste disposal, because plastic containers and products do not readily biodegrade, they take up a large volume of landfill space. So I urge you, in light of the above facts, to avoid using plastic products, especially those that are disposable, in view of health and environmental risks. There is a trend now to develop bio-based plastic products. This is an infant industry, so read the fine print when you go shopping, and make wise and caring choices!

 

300,000 SQUATTERS AND COUNTING

SOMETHING SMELLS!

By Agnes T. Jalandoni

We drive past them every day - shacks in shades of grey, an occasional burst of bright orange or blue, salvaged tarpaulins from the last election to ward off the coming rains. There are people, thousands of them, children, thousands of them, also in varied shades of grey. Grey etched on their faces as they face the daily grind of living in these squatter areas. Living becomes intolerable there especially when the floods come. 

I asked Tia Leticia, one of the applicants for the Gawad Kalinga (GK) sites in Purok Riverside in Banago, what made her decide to put in her sweat equity and join the project. Her family of 5 has never owned a home so they managed to carve out a living as squatters in the same area. During one of the floods, her neighbor’s toilet burst open and feces spilled into their shack. All these years they tolerated the stench of the toilet a foot away but the sight of human waste in her home was the last straw. She signed up for GK. 

In my last article RA 7279, THE URBAN DEVELOPMENT AND HOUSING ACT OF 1992 was introduced. This Act provides for a comprehensive and continuing urban development and housing program, establish the mechanism for its implementation, and for other purposes. 

As most of our laws are beautifully crafted by the greatest minds of our country, I will not even contemplate discussing its many provisions. Besides, I am not a lawyer. Instead, trusting that RA 7279 was made for us and our general welfare, I believe, it is first our obligation to know what it is and what it provides, then to see how our local officials have enforced it. For some of us who have our own homes, we owe this much to those who don’t. 

Bacolod’s population is now 499,497 according to the 2007 census. With 60% of our population considered as illegal dwellers and a growth rate of 2.12%, there will be 10,000 more people in 2009 with 60% of the 10,000 illegal dwellers. 6000 more squatters are added each year. Once again, alarming numbers! 

Somehow, people like Tia Leticia managed to survive because staying in a squatter area cannot be called living. 

The law begins with its declaration of state policy and program objectives. Simple enough to understand as it declares that the state will undertake, in cooperation with the private sector, a comprehensive and continuing URBAN DEVELOPMENT AND HOUSING PROGRAM. I will focus on two main provisions since it directly affects our efforts to solve the flooding problem in our city. 

The Act shall: 

a) Lift the conditions of the underprivileged and homeless citizens in urban areas and in resettlement areas by making available to them decent housing 

b) Provide for the rational use and development of urban land... in order to bring about, among others, the reduction in urban dysfunctions, particularly those that adversely affect public health, safety and ecology. 

It details different approaches to achieve the above provision. I will center on relocation efforts of the people found on waterways because they are the ones who are in danger as well as directly cause flooding. Simply put, their houses built on the waterways and creeks block the natural flow of water and are illegal, a major dysfunction since it affects public health, safety and ecology. 

In November 10, 2007, Resolution No. 713 was passed by the Sangguniang Panlungsod. This was declared as NUISANCE all structures and houses constructed along the rivers, creeks and waterways of Bacolod City. The BAHA (Bacolod Anti Baha Alliance) monitored the efforts of the local government to implement this in key areas affected, mainly in the Banago creek and Mambuloc creek. 

Currently, there are 289 informal settlers on the identified flood-prone areas that are in the priority list submitted by the Bacolod City Flood Control Coordinating Action Team, headed by Councilor Bobby Rojas, and need to be relocated. These homes have been tagged and surveyed by the Bacolod Housing Authority and are just waiting for the city to move. In the last Flood Control Mitigating Committee meeting, where BAHA is a member, the group zeroed in on the lack of enforcement of the City Legal Office. Deadlines have been moved for the final ejection of these squatters. 

Three months have passed since these targets were set. How many postponements are needed? If these people are in disaster/flood-prone areas, they have to be transferred for their own sake. They are breaking the law. A final date, October 9, 2008 was set to cover the first batch. We will see the resolve of this administration to enforce the law. Meanwhile, 300,000 squatters exist and the numbers are growing.* 

LIFESTYLE CHECK

LIFESTYLE CHECK

By Gigi M. Campos

What can one individual do to protect the environment? It seems, very little, especially compared to the power of governments and huge industrial companies. However, working together with dozens, hundreds, thousands of other people, you and I can influence and change policies which are destroying our environment. 

Let’s take the use of plastic bags. The plastic bag may not be the worst thing that adversely affects our environment but because it is everywhere, it is very important. Well over a billion single-use plastic bags or “sando” bags are given out for free each day. From the sidewalk fruit stand, to the corner sari-sari store, to the wet market and to the supermarkets – all are guilty. But as the old adage says, nothing comes for free. 

Here are some facts to illustrate the actual costs paid by our environment and society for the fleeting convenience of unlimited, free, single-use plastic bags. To see the real costs, we must look at the "cradle to grave" multiple impacts and the effects of each phase of a bag's life. Nearly all of us use them – all the time. From the moment we wake up to the time we call it a day at night, we will come in contact with plastics many times during the day. Pervasive and out of control, it is a powerful symbol of consumerism gone wild! I personally believe that the wanton over consumption of plastic bags is insensitive!

Here are the facts. The production of plastic bags requires petroleum and often natural gas, both non-renewable resources that increase our dependency on foreign suppliers. Additionally, prospecting and drilling for these resources contributes to the destruction of fragile habitats and ecosystems around the world. The toxic chemical ingredients needed to make plastic produces pollution during the manufacturing process. The energy needed to manufacture and transport disposable bags eats up more resources and creates global warming emissions.

In the US, the annual cost to retailers alone is estimated at $4 billion. When retailers give away free bags, their costs are passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices.

Hundreds of thousands of sea turtles, whales and other marine mammals die every year from eating discarded plastic bags mistaken for food. Turtles think the bags are jellyfish, their primary food source. Once swallowed, plastic bags choke animals or block their intestines, leading to an agonizing death. 

On land, many cows, goats and other animals suffer a similar fate as marine life when they accidentally ingest plastic bags while foraging for food. In a landfill, plastic bags take up to 1,000 years to degrade. They actually go through a process called photo-degradation—breaking down into smaller and smaller toxic particles that contaminate both soil and water, and end up entering the food chain when animals accidentally ingest them.

When plastic bags break down, small plastic particles can pose threats to marine life and contaminate the food web. A 2001 paper by Japanese researchers reported that plastic debris acts like a sponge for toxic chemicals, soaking up a million-fold greater concentration of such deadly compounds as PCBs and DDE (a breakdown product of the notorious insecticide DDT), than the surrounding seawater. These turn into toxic gut bombs for marine animals which frequently mistake these bits for food. 

We are responsible for our environment. We need a lifestyle check because the only way to protect it is for us citizens to take responsibility for our own lifestyle. And we need to force our government to implement good environmental policies. Initially we can do two things starting now. 

1. Let’s switch to reusable shopping bags. Be a BYOP advocate by Bringing Your Own Bag. BAHA or the Bacolod Anti-Baha Alliance sells at cost katcha reusable shopping bags with catchy messages like, “Wala Plastikanay”, “Hoy! Ga Usar Ka Pa Ya Plastic?” or “Indi Ko Ya Plastic Bag!” 

2. Let’s patronize business establishments that are truly environment-friendly and have shifted to bio-degradable plastic bags or re-usable shopping bags. We must be vigilant and check the veracity of such claims as bio-degradable. It is easy enough to label a plastic bag as bio-degradable, but one of our members in the Baha Alliance did try to see what would happen to one plastic bag labeled bio-degradable from a major department store in Bacolod. After months of exposure to sun and rain, nothing yet has happened. 

We all need that lifestyle check, because our lifestyles need to be changed dramatically. By saying NO to indifference, by saying NO to irresponsible consumerism, by saying NO to the inaction and inefficiency of our city officials, we can be the change! If we can commit ourselves to this advocacy whole-heartedly we can eventually chip off at the intransigence of those in power. "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed people can change the world: indeed it's the only thing that ever has!"-- Margaret Meade. The voice of one can be ignored, but the voice of many will be heard loud and clear and reach the farthest ends of the earth. As part of an advocacy group like BAHA we hope to create enough stink that will pressure our city officials to pass and more importantly to implement laws that will save our environment and our future. 

Brgy. Felisa Officials Say No to Continued Use of Dumpsite; Leonardia Warns Them: ‘Don’t Threaten Us’

By Carla Canet

The Barangay Felisa leaders will no longer allow the City Government of Bacolod to continue using the existing dump site because they failed to respect the barangay residents and officials when they decided to purchase the new dumpsite which will be converted into a sanitary land fill. 

Brgy. Captain Peregrino Aspan and Kagawads Ma. Fe Tresfuentes, Joel Navarro, Rodrigo Tamayo, Rodel Latosa and Julius Makilan said they have lost their trust and confidence in the city officials and will no longer take the risk of allowing them to continue dumping more garbage in their barangay. 

City Councilor Greg Gasataya and the concerned Barangay officials attended the Technical Conference conducted by DENR OIC Regional Director 

Bienvenido Lipayon of the Environment Management Bureau held at PENRO Office yesterday. 

The barangay leaders have expressed their misgivings against the city officials for by-passing them in terms of deciding in behalf of Barangay Felisa. 

Kagawad Tresfuentes said they don’t want the people of Barangay Felisa to blame them for not consulting them prior to the continued use of their barangay as host of the dump site/sanitary land fill. 

Gasataya said they are just complying with what DENR directs. He said that he respects the sentiments of the people of Barangay Felisa including the Barangay officials. 

He said he is just doing his job. “We have started to implement the safe closure and rehabilitation plan being undertaken by the City Engineer’s Office and Department of Public Services.” 

He also requested the conduct of the Executive-Legislative caucus with officials of Barangay Felisa. 

But the barangay officials do everything to stop the continued use of the existing dump site. 

Meanwhile, Mayor Evelio R. Leonardia said they should not threaten the city because he is also bent on doing what is supposed to be done, whatever that is.” 

He said if the city has committed violations, the DENR could have called the attention of the city. 

“If it’s between the city and DENR, this issue would not be a problem. But there are people and quarters who want to sabotage what are doing. There are those who just want to look for mistakes and they are doing everything to sabotage what are doing,” he said. 

He added that the city is now complying with the safe closure and rehabilitation plan. 

He said that in terms of compliance, Bacolod City is still better than the other localities. 

What is more interesting in other places is that they help one another. But here in Bacolod, others will always look for means to sabotage what are doing. 

While we are doing our best to address the problem, others want us to fail because if the city stinks, then that is good for their politics,” Leonardia said. 

A lot of people know who the habitual saboteur is, Leonardia said. 

Moreover, Director Lipayon said the decision of the city will have bearing than the social acceptability in the barangay. 

“The decision of the city has more weight than that of the barangay because it involves technical feasibility,” he said.*

WHOSE JOB IS IT?

SOMETHING SMELLS!

Whose Job Is it?

By Alan S. Gensoli

Under a cloak of darkness, a tricycle driver chugs along Lacson St. at two o’clock in the morning with his load of garbage. He stops in a dark area and dumps the trash by the roadside. This story is real. Worse, it has become habit. It has become culture. 

Solid Waste Management (SWM) should be a way of life. But in a society where hygiene seems not part of daily vocabulary, SWM has to be taught as a discipline. Whose job is it to implement SWM, the city or the barangay’s? 

Republic Act 9003, the legal bible of SWM in the country, clarifies that the barangays have a critical role to play in the implementation of SWM because garbage segregation must take place at source, meaning, in the households in the barangays. BUT: Accountability to the national law for failure of implementation remains the yoke of the city. The first paragraph of Chapter 2, Sec. 10 of R.A. 9003 states in part: “Pursuant to the relevant provisions of R.A. No. 7160, otherwise known as the Local Government Code, the LGUs shall be primarily responsible for the implementation and enforcement of the provisions of this Act....” (referring of course to the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000, or R.A. 9003). For this reason, every city and municipality is required by law to create a Solid Waste Management Board, with the Mayor sitting as Chairman. Logic would have it that if the law wished to exempt the city from culpability, then there should be no need for such a board. But there is. 

Bacolod City Ordinance 310, or the Revised Ecological Solid Waste Management Ordinance of Bacolod City, passed into law in 2002, re-interprets the national law for this community. However, I believe it has over-interpreted the national law. It seems that the City Ordinance delegated too much responsibility to the barangays, much more that what R.A. 9003 suggests. Consider the matter about the appropriation of SWM funds. 

Bear with me: Paragraph B of Art. 24, Sec. 2 of the Bacolod City Ordinance 310 states in part: “...the annual appropriation for Solid Waste Management must include provisions for allocations to the barangay local governments to enable them to pursue and implement their mandate under R.A. 9003 and its 

Implementing Rules as well as under this ordinance. How much these allocations shall be, shall depend on availability of funds....” What does this mean? SWM can proceed only when city hall has money to spare? It certainly sounds so, but that is not so under the national law. 

Bear with me some more: The second paragraph of Letter L, Sec. 4 of Rule VI, of the IRR of R.A. 9003, states that local solid waste management boards shall “assist barangays in their solid waste management, where the barangay cannot financially or adequately manage all waste segregation, sorting, recovery, recycling, and composting....” The national law is efficient this way, providing a caveat so that SWM will be implemented at all cost, that in the event that the barangay cannot afford to implement it, the LGU must implement it. Now then, the buck stops at city hall. 

Notwithstanding the national law, our local government has taken refuge in City Ordinance 310 by allocating spare change: P3 Million to be divided among all 61 barangays. When you hear about government appropriating P50 Million for furniture, P3 Million is loose change. Don’t get me wrong: I will not mind sitting on a Louis XIV armchair while I wait my turn at the new government center, for so long as this city is clean, green, flood-free, healthy, and practicing SWM. I think that’s fair enough. 

The way the P3 Million is divided among the barangays also requires examination. Out of our 61 barangays, 41 are so-called urban barangays. They are located around the center of the city, and are known simply as Brgy. 1, 2, 3, until 41. By some mathematical magic, they’re the ones receiving the lowest appropriations, as if to say that these barangays are cleaner and so they need less SWM money. Have you seen the garbage in their esteros? Some of these urban barangays are getting as low as P1,000 each month as SWM allocation from the city government. What can a barangay captain do with P1,000? Recycle it? I say, refuse it. 

I pay particular attention to the appropriation of funds because money is key to the success of SWM. The process of educating the citizenry, the creation and distribution of information, education, and communication materials, the building of Material Recovery Facilities in barangays, the building of the sanitary landfill, among many others, require money, money that only the city government has. And money that the national law requires local governments to give.*

MY DIRTY STORY

SOMETHING SMELLS


By: Marilyn M. Soliven


I always love rain. The sound of rain, that steady hip hop music pelting the rooftop from the clouds above cutting off cars from the street, would lull me to sleep. It made me want to take long country-side drives or curl up with a good book. At night, I would listen to the croaking of frogs and the sound of crickets which was comforting.

It was such a treat for my brother, sister and I having a house beside the Mandalagan River. We learned how to swim on this river as kids. The river side was open then and had no need for concrete walls. The water was clean and small fishing boats would ply the route. It was uninhabited all the way to the Banago bridge. Never did I think rain and river would conspire against us now!

My story started one evening when it was storming and raining heavily. The torrents of the river could be heard gurgling a few meters from our dining room. Within minutes water was rushing up to our knees covering the entire ground floor. The higher the water, the stronger the swirl got to be. The dining table with dinner food still on top lay floating around with its chairs. The sofa, the albums with five generations of photographs, stereo and speakers, TV sets, library books, all these swallowed in muck.

I used my legs to monitor the water level. From ankle deep, it rose to my knee, to my thigh, to my waist and then to my chest… And I’m no Lilliputian! Electricity was still on. I had to tell everyone to stay away from sockets that were on every corner of the house. We had to get the kids to the second floor and move whatever could be saved to higher ground. This was only the start.

Water did not only come from the river. I noticed that now it comes rushing in from Lacson Street bringing in more garbage along with the deluge. This dreadful experience did not stop. Instead, the floods kept getting higher through the years. We had to build a concrete hump at the entrance of our house higher than Lacson Street but to no avail. The piercing twirls from the road were so strong it created a hole in the driveway deep enough to drown a man. The currents were even heavier than the river that portions of our walls toppled over. In one instance, as water was surging in, mother was trapped inside the bedroom unable to open the door. The repressive force of water locked her in along with two helpers. From the outside my brother pried a bedroom window and together in the dark, swam their way out to safety.

There was no slackness in me for disasters gave me energy and encouraged alertness. But I came to a point when I thought nature was penalizing man for his neglect - hospital syringes to be found everywhere, green surgical gowns, plastics floating with even more garbage around my waist turning round in corkscrew and a coconut tree stuck lengthwise inside our sala! Who needs purified water when I’ve slurped the quagmire? I did my microscopic imagination and never thought this time I’d be swimming the creek again!

When the flood subsides it draws everything along with it. What we did was close the decorative grills on the ground floor of the house. It acted like a sieve, filtering water as it held back furniture, appliances, bins, sofa and cushions, mattresses and many of the city’s delectable contributions.

The next day is the calm after the storm. This is when you stare at the devastation. Or count your blessings. No rice to eat in the kitchen. No dry clothes for everyone to wear. Thankfully we had people who offered help. Garbage was removed, uprooted trees cleared, mud scraped from the floor of the house. Furniture and belongings were laid out on the lawn to dry. This took days of cleaning and drying. Everything had to be scrubbed with soap and disinfected. And even then there was the lingering smell of decay for months. There were tedious things only you can do like sorting out drawers, cabinets, personal files and things precious to one. I had to strengthen myself over mementos that were never bound to be recovered.

News of heavy rain should put us all on flood mode status. Be prepared. Have a calendar that indicates the tides. Monitor the water level if you live right by the creek or river. Listen to weather updates. Have your trees pruned regularly, preferably during the dry months. Elevate cabinets with platforms or build shelving to permanently secure belongings.

There are solutions to the flood problem in Bacolod City. Each one of us should get involved. Join environmental groups. Encourage government to be more aggressive in flood control programs. Learn and practice Zero Waste Management. Plant trees and go green. This is a continuous struggle and we have to give it our unparalleled attention. Think clean!

POLITICAL APATHY

Something Smells


by: Jose. Ma. S. Jalandoni

It’s been what, more than 10 months since the big Anti- Baha motorcade was exercised by genuinely concerned citizens of Bacolod. If we were to go to the Banago Road ( from the Bata intersection to Banago) where the anti - flooding project is going on, you will surprisingly realize upon careful scrutiny, that the main outlets for the floods are now even more blocked by the unfinished work. Why? Because there are still illegal settlers squatting who have not been relocated. Worse, the areas that have been vacated in the initial phase have since been built on again by other squatters in the area. They have flagrantly ignored the notices, the warnings, the law! Why has nothing been done even after they have already been declared by the city as “ nuisance”? Because, I hear over and over again, these are beloved “voters”. This is a very good example of the meaning of this short article’s title.

There is an apparent indifference or lack of interest on the part of our local officials otherwise the project would have been completed already, or at least, almost completed as planned. The turtle - like pace of the project certainly smacks of the lack of political will. It will take no less than our top local official to complete the project since the buck stops with him. Unless, he exercises his duty and implements the law as the top executive in our city, the Banago floodway project will not be finished.

We hear about similar projects all over the country and the lack of political will of other local executives. That is why our country is in such dire straits. Our uncompleted Banago floodway is a perfect example.
So what now? We know that the city officials concerned have been updated regularly with what needs to be done, thanks to the efforts of the BAHA ( Bacolod Anti Baha Alliance) as well as other concerned individuals. The BAHA group has persistently and consistently been seeing to that by joining the Flood Control Mitigating Committee set up by USEC Anthony Golez. The three main projects in the committee are: Flood Control, Housing and Solid Waste Management.

What have the officials involved been providing since the Committee was formed last June, 2008? Minimum requirements: the cleaning and clearing of waterways and drainage areas that should have been maintained/ cleaned anyway as part of the basic service deliverables of the city, the tagging of illegal structures in the disaster prone waterways and yet, no actual relocation of these squatters, and the purchase of another area to dump garbage which according to the officials will be a permanent landfill. Unless top management decides to apply the full force of the executive, all the efforts of the line department heads will be futile. It is true that previous administrations have not done all these basic services adequately enough since we got the floods of previous years. Blaming the ineptitude of previous administrations is also conveniently available to the present administration - political apathy again.
I personally believe, ever so strongly, that if it were not for that eye opening motorcade last Nov. 2007, the city government would not have known the gravity of the situation and they would not have lifted a finger. If and when these projects are completed successfully, I believe credit should go to where credit is due. The truth always, always, comes out in the end. There will always be competent citizens and officials who will attest to it. Political apathy must become a thing of the past.