What about a Mahiga boardwalk?

The first time I heard of the word “boardwalk” was in the early 1980s. I used to hear this word while viewing boxing contests from betamax tapes I rented from the shop of the family of Larry Orbeta, at Foodarama, located along Gen. Maxilom Avenue, Cebu City. Al Bernstein, the anchor announcer of the ESPN boxing promotion, would always open the TV coverage of the fight card saying that they were broadcasting from the boardwalk of Atlantic City, facing the ocean. I really did not know what a boardwalk was but I imagined it to be a man-made structure. Well, neither did I know where Atlantic City was.

Few years ago, I heard that Naga City, about 30 kilometers south of Cebu City, had its own boardwalk. The Naga City Boardwalk is probably the city's iconic makeover in recent years. It has become a major tourist attraction for many locals. There was a TV news program that broadcast its lavish inaugural. I realized that this term “boardwalk” is no longer a part of American lingo. It also exists in the Philippines. And so, out of plain curiosity, I tried to know what a boardwalk really is. According to Wikipedia, it is an elevated footpath, walkway, or causeway built with wooden planks that enables pedestrians to cross wet, fragile, or marshy land. It may also be a promenade.

I am talking about boardwalks because few days ago, the cities of Cebu and Mandaue jointly embarked on an admirable environment-friendly project of cleaning the Mahiga Creek. On GMA’s Balitang Bisdak, I saw personnel from Mandaue City wading through the dirty waters of the river to gather waste materials and other rubbish and placing such filth in sacks for transportation somewhere. Truthfully speaking, my initial reaction upon seeing workers collect garbage by stepping into murky waterway was one of immeasurable apprehension. Did they know the kind of health hazards, the physical risks and other dangers they subjected themselves to?

The Mahiga Creek that serves as the boundary between these two neighboring cities of Cebu and Mandaue is a favorite dumping ground of many a people’s garbage to make it an environmental nightmare. Residents of barangays Kasambagan and Mabolo of Cebu City and Banilad and Subangdaku in Mandaue are subjected not only frequent flashfloods caused by the impeded water flow but also health hazards carried in wastes. It is good that mayors Edgardo Labella and Jonas Cortes, have decided to band their efforts to clear this waterway. Their plan of taking turns in cleaning the river with the first 15 days of the month as the workload of Cebu and the other half of the month that of Mandaue, is ideal.

In the television reportage, we saw that the houses of informal settlers were dismantled. The riverbanks were finally cleared of illegal structures. But how can we prevent the return of squatters?

The construction of a boardwalk along this waterway can serve this function of preventing squatting. A boardwalk converts the eyesore that it is now to a tourist destination that it can become. Most importantly, it will effect a complete environmental turnaround. Who knows if a sporting event can even be held in the future near this waterway, another Al Bernstein can claim that he is broadcasting from the boardwalk of Mahiga.