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By Ira Karen Apanay, Senior Reporter
THE Department of Environment and Natural
Resources (DENR) is seeking for ways to save Benguet’s Balili
River and prevent the river from becoming as polluted as Pasig
River.
DENR Secretary Lito Atienza ordered that a
comprehensive program be drawn up that would connect all of Baguio
City’s households to the city’s sewage-treatment plant in an
effort to improve the water quality of Balili River.
“I have instructed heads of the DENR office
for the Cordillera Administrative Region to sit down with water
district officials, local government officials, and concerned
non-government organizations for the drafting of the proposal,”
Atienza said.
The DENR chief said the proposal would be
evaluated for possible funding by agencies assisting the DENR in
implementing its environmental projects like the Asian Development
Bank and the World Bank.
“I don’t want Balili River to go the way
Pasig River did due to urbanization and be added to the list of dead
rivers. Not under my watch,” Atienza said.
Based on the Water Quality Assessment of the
Balili River done by the Environmental Management Bureau of DENR,
identified major pollution sources are: solid wastes or garbage from
households, particularly plastics and styrofoams, domestic sewage
directly discharged into the river by some households, untreated
effluents from business establishments such as used oil from motor
and machine shops and human activities like washing cars along the
river and the ongoing construction and widening of the Baguio-La
Trinidad-Bontoc Road.
The EMB-Cordillera Administrative Region said
these pollutants do not only pose danger and risk to aquatic life
but also to humans and contribute to the degradation of Balili
River.
“Protecting Balili River becomes even more
urgent as its water quality directly affects the city’s water
supply which is mostly sourced from deep wells,” Atienza added.
Paquito Moreno, regional director of DENR’s
EMB-CAR, said the river is considered “a backbone”, as a source
of water that feeds the city’s aquifers.
The City’s Bureau of Water District showed
that there were 498 wells as of 1995, with an extraction capacity of
less than 30 liters per second.
“The figures are definitely higher now
considering only 25 percent of the population, living in seven
barangays, is not connected to the city’s main water pipeline,”
Moreno said, adding that more and more houses have been converted
through the years into facilities servicing local and foreign
tourists that may well add to the problem.
In 2005, about 637,000 tourist arrivals were
recorded, generating almost P4 billion in revenues. The city has 109
hotels, inns and lodging houses, with 4,687 rooms for rent.
A 2004 study showed that the city’s
government-run sewage treatment plant covered only about 19 percent
of the city’s population and 40 percent of these largely comprised
local industries and large commercial establishments like Shoe Mart,
Camp John Hay, and Teacher’s Camp.
Residents of downstream districts have
experienced water-borne diseases caused by pollution upstream.
“If our efforts to protect the Balili River is
at 10 kilometers per hour (kph), I think we can hit 80 kph with this
directive from Secretary Atienza,” Moreno stressed. The Balili
River spans about 50 kilometers from Benguet to La Union.
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