Danica Soledad
A Multimedia Artist and advocate for the environment. She aims to inform the youth about today’s problems surrounding our environment, believer that a young that is informed can do the
Meet Janjan, a Janitor Fish living in the infamous Pasig River, the biologically dead river. Janjan is no ordinary fish, he’s a natural scavenger, clean-freak for algae, as much as he is also a collector, gathering stuff from the river.
Janjan explores through the river and spots these bright and lightweight objects scattered all around. Looking for things that are great foundations for his house and light enough to carry around. Little did he know, these were actually pieces of trash that are crumbling and making his home weak. He wishes he had chosen sturdier foundations.
As time passes, Janjan notices that something is changing, the riverbed becomes clearer! He can see his friends, and discovered rocks on the river floor, perfect for a strong and cozy home! He looks up and sees humans cleaning the river. He becomes inspired, so he puts in the same effort to build a new home.
After so much hard work, Janjan’s house finally stands proudly, made of these solid rocks that are even covered of his favorite algae! But suddenly, darkness falls, lasting not just for a night but weeks. He swims up and investigates but only to find a massive rectangular rock above the river blocking the sun.
As Janjan is swimming back to his spot, he sees a deserted and lifeless scene. It was lonely, as many fish have left in search of a better home, and his once lively river is now quiet. The joy was short-lived, and Janjan is left with nothing to do in the once-again lifeless river.
The Pasig River was neglected for a long time, and look at where it’s gotten. Now that it’s healing, what will happen if it were neglected once again?
If there will be big roadway to stand above the river, it will ruin the life of the river, again. Traffic will catch up later on and soon in time, this roadway will be full of cars. This shouldn’t have to be a problem when there are other ways of transportation.
But if we fight to improve the Pasig River, we can have hope for its good recovery and even make humans and aquatic species enjoy its life. A park can be built beside it so we can have a good view of the waters, and aquatic species can come back and flourish to the new Pasig River, just like the in Cheonggyecheon!
You see, we have lots of similarities with the animals we co-live within our earth. Janjan does not only represent fishes in Pasig River, these problems also happen to a lot of our fellow Filipinos. With projects like these, people could also leave there homes to make way of building the roadway, or eventually leave because of its unhealthy aura.
What we humans have is the upper hand to either care for or abuse our nature,
while our fellow helpless species have no other choice but to just watch and survive.
while our fellow helpless species have no other choice but to just watch and survive.
