Iloilo River ‘dying’
THE Iloilo River is dying, said an official of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in Region 6.
The discharges from commercial establishments, hotels, hospitals and households are slowly killing the river, revealed Samson Guillergan of the DENR-6’s Pollution Control Division.
Oxygen in the river is depleting because of the effluents, reducing the viability of fish presence in the area, explained Guillergan.
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 — 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 stressed.
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 Nereo 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.
“Since (the Iloilo River) is the womb that gave birth to this metropolis, its protection should be a primordial concern,” stressed the website.
Iloilo River was already a noted busy artery of commerce to the towns (now Iloilo City districts) of Molo and Jaro long before the coming of the Spaniards to the Philippines. A considerable number of Chinese traders were already residing in Molo when the colonizers came in. The Spaniards also saw a thriving settlement in Jaro.
The sugar industry also developed in part because of the Iloilo River. Sugar from Panay and Negros, which were subsequently loaded on ocean-going vessels bound for other countries, found a safety entry point at the Iloilo River.
Spanish and British firms began to crowd the marshy area along the Iloilo River’s banks as the volume of Negros sugar landing in the Iloilo port grew.
They constructed stone warehouses fronting the Iloilo River during the 1850s and 1860s. More foreign firms built retail shops, residential houses and permanent offices and along the streets parallel to the Iloilo River from the 1870s onward.
David Israel Sinay, Panay News
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