Despite the seemingly dismal outlook for waterways, international aid and governmental efforts are giving hope for local rehabilitation in some areas. For example, the Pasig River in the Philippines received industrial wastes, municipal solid wastes, and garbage. By the early 1990s, the river was considered biologically inactive and had dangerously high counts of fecal coliform . The river was a dark, murky color, and large rafts of floating garbage covered the surface of many river segments. Sunken boats and abandoned barges made navigation difficult and hazardous. Factories and makeshift shacks lined long stretches of the riverbank, as well as tributaries and estuaries . With help from assistance grants from the government of Denmark and the Asian Development Bank, the Pasig River Rehabilitation Commission was established in 1999 by an executive order from Philippines president Joseph Estrada. The government's goal is to upgrade the river's quality so it can sustain aquatic life and can be used for recreation by 2008.
Just a note to Anti-Commie – these images may not have been Photoshopped. I studied photography in college for a couple of years, and it doesn’t matter whether you are using film or digital, nearly all high quality images are “manipulated” for contrast and exposure, intensity or lack or intensity in the photograph’s colours. I did colour negative printing as well as black and white, and colouration can be manipulated/altered printing “traditional style” colour prints. This kind of image manipulation went in on colour magazines for years prior to the invention of Photoshop.