The Pasig River (; ) is a water body in the Philippines that connects Laguna de Bay to Manila Bay. Stretching for , it bisects the Philippine capital of Manila and its surrounding urban area into northern and southern halves. Its major tributaries are the Marikina River and San Juan River. The total drainage basin of the Pasig River, including the basin of Laguna de Bay, covers .
The Pasig River is technically a tidal estuary, as the flow direction depends upon the water level difference between Manila Bay and Laguna de Bay. During the dry season, the water level in Laguna de Bay is low with the river's flow direction dependent on the tides. During the wet season, when the water level of Laguna de Bay is high, the flow is reversed towards Manila Bay.
The Pasig River used to be an important transport route and source of water for Spanish Manila. Due to negligence and industrial development, the river suffered a rapid decline in the second half of the 20th century and was declared biologically dead in 1990. Two decades later after that declaration, however, a renaturation program designed to revive the river has seen the return of life to the river, including eight fish species, 39 species of birds, and 118 species of trees and other vegetation. As a result, the Pasig River received the Asian River Prize by the International River Foundation (IRF) in 2019.
The Pasig River Rehabilitation Commission (PRRC) was a Philippine government agency established to oversee rehabilitation efforts for the river from 1999 until it was abolished in November 2019. Rehabilitation efforts are also aided by private sector organizations, such as the Clean and Green Foundation, Inc., which ran the Piso para sa Pasig (Filipino: "A peso for the Pasig") campaign in the 1990s.
Etymology
The river takes its name from the city of Pasig, which is named after the Tagalog word pasig, meaning "a river that flows into the sea" or "the sandy bank of a river", with the former in reference to the Pasig River's flow from Laguna de Bay towards Manila Bay and out into the South China Sea.
Geography
The Pasig River winds generally northwestward for some from Laguna de Bay, the largest lake in the Philippines, to Manila Bay, in the southern part of the island of Luzon. From the lake, the river runs between Taguig and Taytay, Rizal, before entering Pasig. This portion of the Pasig River, to the confluence with the Marikina River tributary, is known as the Napindan River or Napindan Channel.
From there, the Pasig forms flows through Pasig until its confluence with the Taguig River. From here, it forms the border between Mandaluyong to the north and Makati to the south. The river then sharply turns northeast, where it has become the border between Mandaluyong and Manila before turning again westward, joining its other major tributary, the San Juan River, and then following a sinuous path through the center of Manila before emptying into the bay.
The whole river and most portions of its tributaries lie entirely within Metro Manila, the metropolitan region of the capital. Isla de Convalecencia, the only island dividing the Pasig River, can be found in Manila and is where the Hospicio de San Jose is located.
Tributaries and canals
One major river that drains Laguna de Bay is the Taguig River, which enters into Taguig before becoming the Pateros River; it is the border between the municipalities of Pateros and Makati. The Pateros River then enters the confluence where the Napindan Channel and Marikina River meet. The Marikina River is the larger of the two major tributaries of the Pasig River, and it flows southward from the mountains of Rizal and cuts through the Marikina Valley. The San Juan River drains the plateau on which Quezon City stands; its major tributary is Diliman Creek.
Within the city of Manila, various esteros (canals) criss-cross through the city and connect with the Tullahan River in the north and the Parañaque River to the west.
Crossings
A total of 20 bridges currently cross the Pasig. The first bridge from the source at Laguna de Bay is the Napindan Bridge, followed by the Arsenio Jimenez Bridge to its west. Crossing the Napindan Channel in Pasig is the Bambang Bridge. It is followed by the Kaunlaran Bridge that connects barangays and Sumilang in Pasig.
The next bridge downstream is the C.P. Garcia Bridge carrying C-5 Road and connecting the cities of Makati and Pasig. It is followed by the Sta. Monica–Lawton Bridge, the newest bridge opened in June 2021 that connects Lawton Avenue in Makati to Fairlane Street in Pineda, Pasig as part of the Bonifacio Global City–Ortigas Link Road project approved in 2015.