DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/31 October) — An environmental advocacy group urged the Davao City government to introduce more environment-friendly policies to maintain cleanliness in the locality.
This after popular user-contributed database Numbeo, which provides statistical analyses on global living conditions, ranks Davao City as the “second cleanest city” in Southeast Asia in terms of “pollution index,” scoring 55.6 points in the website’s 2024 Mid-Year Pollution Index.
Numbeo defines pollution index as “an estimation of overall pollution levels in cities worldwide, which considers factors such as air and water pollution, garbage disposal, cleanliness, noise and light pollution, green spaces, and comfort in relation to pollution.”
Sought for comment on Numbeo’s cleanest city findings, Mark Peñalver, Interfacing Development Interventions for Sustainability (IDIS) executive director, said: “I hope the city would translate that into policies and policy implementation, and for the people to change their behavior.”
Peñalver, a lawyer, expressed reservations on Numbeo’s ratings, saying “it lacks clear parameters that correlate with actual air and water quality.”
“Our reservation for Numbeo is that it is a perception-based survey, so everyone who has access can vote… and there are several cautions from other sources that this is not reliable,” Peñalver told reporters Wednesday afternoon.
“But yet again, if this is a perception-based [survey], it must be the pride of the Dabawenyos,” he added.
He said the survey “should inspire Davao City to improve its environmental policies and infrastructure,” particularly in waste and water management, emissions control, and air quality.
Amid Numbeo’s recognition, Peñalver noted the city still has problems with poor waste management, drainage issues, and high river pollution levels.
Last year, a study by the Hydrology for Environment, Life and Policy – Davao Network (HELP-Davao Network) said that an “alarming” level of phosphate, total suspended solids (TSS) and fecal coliform has been found in the Davao River Basin.
According to Numbeo, Davao city’s pollution index is just behind Singapore’s score of 32.5. Davao City surpassed Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (65.4), Bandung, Indonesia (67.9), and Baguio, Philippines (72.9).
The list only covered 16 Southeast Asian cities, four of them from the Philippines, including Cebu and Manila.
In a podcast aired on October 27 via his Facebook page CM Baste Duterte, Mayor Sebastian Duterte lauded the City Environment and Natural Resources Office, particularly the city’s street sweepers, for making the locality clean. (Ian Carl Espinosa/MindaNews)
