’s Sustainable Development Goals){kind=link}
IN RECOGNIZING THE need for equal access to urban green spaces, which is part of the United Nations (UN)’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the World Health Organization (WHO) is recommending universal access to green spaces with at least 0.5 hectares of green space within 300 meters of every domicile.
This includes a specific target to provide universal access to safe, inclusive and accessible green and public spaces, in particular for women, children, people with disabilities (PWDs) and the elderly and senior citizens, which sadly have been overlooked (or apparently set aside) by some of our government’s infrastructure development engineers.
‘[P]eople witnessed the results of implementing too much infrastructural projects and it really causes us some apprehension as the developments do not actually conform with our surroundings and our environment …’
WHO cited that green spaces provide benefits to people, like lower premature mortality, fewer mental health problems, and healthier babies.
Considering this, we realize this would be a remote possibility to happen in Metro Manila with its 16 cities and lone independent municipality having focused their sights more on building economic and business infrastructure that generate revenue rather than leisure spaces that are seen only as a luxury and means of beautification.
WORRISOME TREND
Added to this worrisome trend, urban centers, such as our overpopulated metropolis (and even in Metro Cebu and Metro Davao), are looking to reclamation projects that are presumed to generate even more revenue whilst forgetting the implications of the heavy flooding that result from them.
So we ask, is Metro Manila really doing well with the intense infrastructure development it is now experiencing?
The answer is obvious as people witnessed the results of implementing too much infrastructural projects and it really causes us some apprehension as the developments do not actually conform with our surroundings and our environment—causing adverse effects to our lives and impacting the natural order of things.
This is dangerous as we remember that Mother Nature has a way of reclaiming what is hers from the beginning!
A SMART METROPOLIS
Metro Manila may now be considered a modern (or smart) suburbs with its technological advancements, but we see a dark side to all of these.
Australian-Filipina celebrity host, Anne Curtis-Smith Heussaff, supports our observation, lamenting the significant lack of green spaces in the metropolis while aboard a passing flight.
Anne, who is by the way one of my fave celebrities, shared aerial shots she took during her travel back to Manila. These include an aerial view of some parts of Metro Manila and a comment she wrote in an Instagram story with a loudly crying emoji: “Sad to see we barely have any green left.”
She even added her own view of our historic Pasig River: “What a dream it would be if the Pasig River (were) clean and safe to swim in.”
Anne actually saw something in a portion of the river that worried her: “Wonder what all the black stuff is in this part of the Pasig River.”
SMALLER GREEN SPACES
In 2019, University of the Philippines Diliman professor Bernard Alan Racoma posted a map featuring Metro Manila’s green spaces and he wrote: “I knew what to expect, but I didn’t realize it would make me this sad.”
Looking at Racoma’s map, it’s true that there are only a few green spaces left in Metro Manila.
Funny, though, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources-National Capital Region insists that Metro Manila’s green space cover has expanded by 47 percent from 2021 to 2024.
Where then can we see the expansion it claims in the past three years?