Iloilo River: City’s biggest septic tank
ONE HUNDRED FORTY of the total 180 barangays in Iloilo City have virtually made the once beautiful and majestic Iloilo River as giant septic tank.
This is the reason why the river at the heart of the metropolis is dying, said City Environment and Natural Resources Office (Cenro) chief, Engr. Noel Hechanova.
Compounding the pollution problem is the wastewater from hospitals, hotels, commercial establishments, and households freely discharged to the river.
Fishkills have become a regular occurrence at the river because of the unabated pollution it absorbs.
“There’s a problem of low dissolved oxygen caused by organic load from human wastes. The impact is fish kill and death of aquatic animals and plants. Septic tanks should serve as partial treatment of human wastes considering the city has no centralized sewage treatment facility,” Hechanova told The Daily Guardian.
“We should build a sewage treatment facility to at least reduce the organic load being discharged to the river,” he added.
Hechanova said the City Hall must pass an ordinance that will require households to clean their septic tanks every three years.
He said the common practice is that the septic tanks are not dislodged until these are full, thus overflowing to the drainage system.
The proposed sewage ordinance, Hechanova explained, will provide a management office and disposal guidelines for this purpose.
How much it will cost to treat the sewage in the city?
Hechanova said building a centralized sewage treatment facility would cost P80million.
Initially, they are trying to source out P3million for the project’s feasibility study and engineering plan through a funding assistance from Asian Development Bank (ADB) or United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
“It’s a very expensive and large project. Even in Manila with two million population, only some 2,000 have been connected to the sewage treatment facility,” Hechanova said.
The Cenro chief said they have been advocating since 2004 for the USAID-supported Local Initiatives for Affordable Wastewater Treatment (LINAW) project to be replicated here.
Meanwhile, a “low-cost” P4-million wastewater treatment plant has been piloted in the city’s new slaughterhouse in Barangay Tacas, Jaro.
Hechanova said they have been encouraging hospitals to install wastewater treatment plant. In fact, they are offering their technical assistance and are making study tours for hospital administrators to help them realize this facility.
So far, only Iloilo Doctors’ Hospital has established its own wastewater treatment facility.
Hechanova said malls including SM, Robinsons, and Gaisano, retail store Makro, fast food chain Red Ribbon and three big oil companies Petron, Shell and Caltex are likewise equipped with wastewater treatment plants.
St. Paul’s Hospital which sits right on the riverbank and Iloilo Mission Hospital have of late started establishing their wastewater treatment plants.
Hechanova said establishments may use chemicals to treat their wastewater but it’s expensive and not sustainable. In the long run it is cheaper to have a wastewater treatment plant.
For failure to set up wastewater treatment facilities, businesses will be penalized for non-compliance with the Clean Water Act that requires treatment of toilet wastes prior to disposal.
Jeehan Fernandez, The Daily Guardian
Well.. I really do agree with that. I won’t allow that our generations would be the last one to see the wonder and majesty of Iloilo River, which is what we owe to our ancestors for taking care of it.
It isn’t too late to take the necessary actions in restoring the pristine quality of Iloilo River. It will take much effort from the local government and the support of the Ilonggos to achieve this goal. I do want out next generation to see the wonder and majesty of the river. The river is the crowning glory of the city and we should better take good care of it.
as a technology provider our legacy is to protect the environment which we do almost a decade ago but because of perception of most of the owner of big companies that installation of wastewater treatment is less priority in building with their bussiness establishment why??? because their is no return of investment in the wastewater facility only a continues expenses (facility operation). All i can say that their is an ROI in this facility if the owner of the establishment is open minded with the options that we proposed & carried out which has been in the R&D, pilot plant we install for the rehabilitation of rivers. River water polluter has something to answer with this case and debt to the one who made it…it not to late to save the environment created for us and we don’t have any rights to destroy it