Left, Singapore River in 1977; right, today

The clean-up cost the Singapore government $300 million ($1.3 billion today, equivalent to P70 billion) and involved a relocation of about 6,000 squatters and hundreds of businesses. Singapore dredged foul-smelling mud from the banks and the bottom of the river, clearing the debris and other rubbish. Two of Lee’s high-ranking officials were assigned to the task, which eventually took Singapore 10 years to complete, with its rivers now considered one of the cleanest in the world. (Pasig today is much more polluted than Singapore’s rivers were in 1977, so an estimate of twice what it cost that city-state, or P140 billion, would not be an overestimation of how much it would cost to clean up our river.)

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