DENR exec warns of ‘dying Iloilo River’

ILOILO CITY, Oct. 8 (PNA) - Discharges from commercial establishments, hotels, hospitals and households are slowly killing the Iloilo River, revealed Samson Guillergan of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) 6 Pollution Control Division.

Oxygen in the river is depleting because of the effluents, reducing the viability of fish presence in the area, Guillergan said.

The DENR had classified the Iloilo River under Category C, suited for fish production and industrial water use.

Through the years, however, its water became dirty and is now failing to meet the required dissolved oxygen of five milligrams per liter.

As of September this year, DENR recorded the river water’s dissolved oxygen average at 4.4 milligrams per liter.

“This sometimes causes fish kills,” said Ninfa Adolfo, DENR Environmental Management Specialist II.

The Iloilo River is a unique ecosystem. Twenty-seven barangays of Iloilo City are direct stakeholders of this body of water. It hosts around 40 of the 50 Philippine mangrove species and is a livelihood source for fisher folks. It is also a natural infrastructure for tourism.

DENR and its Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) are continuously monitoring the quality of the river’s water through a water quality management area governing board. The board is a policy-making body that is also tasked to come up with an action plan purposely to rehabilitate the watercourse.

The board is composed of the DENR regional director and municipal mayors. It has set up 12 sampling points to closely monitor the river’s water quality.

Guillergan said the body has started an information/education campaign on commercial establishments, hospitals, hotels and malls. They must “treat” their effluents before discharging these to the river, he said.

Guillergan said informal settlers along the river also contribute to the pollution of the Iloilo River.

In 2003, Iloilo Business Club completed what it considered as one of its biggest projects – the Iloilo River Development Master Plan – in partnership with the city government and the Asia Foundation.

The Iloilo River Development Master Plan is a 10-year plan that blueprints the rehabilitation, improvement and sustainability agenda proposed for Iloilo River. With five more years to go before the master plan expires, it remains unclear if it can save the Iloilo River.

In its website, the club said the master plan came from the apparent need to save the Iloilo River – a major commercial asset with a huge historical significance to Iloilo City – from further deterioration.

The master plan identified development strategies and policies in areas of land use and urban design, socio-economic improvement, infrastructure facilities, environmental protection and institutional mechanisms.

One website dedicated to the preservation and restoration of the Iloilo River (www.iloiloriver.com) describes this body of water as a “public realm” and therefore, must be conserved and restored for everyone to enjoy.

“It is not a giant receptacle of wastes from industries, businesses and homes. It is a body of water that gave life to what is now Iloilo City,” stressed the website developed by Ilonggo journalist Nero Lujan, a 2004 WASH Media Awardee.

The WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) Awards is conferred by the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC) based in Geneva, Switzerland.