The Pasig River: Reviving a Dead Water in the Philippines

The Pasig River in the Philippines was a clear, flowing body of water that served as the center of commerce in Spanish colonial Manila in the 1800s. Stretching 27 kilometers, it connects Laguna Lake to Manila Bay and was the major source of water and livelihood of the many communities along its banks. People washed clothes in the shallower waters and fisher folks daily catch were always bountiful. The passenger boats that plied the river from the nearby province of Laguna to Manila and back served as the p