Tuesday, Apr. 29, 2008 (5:00 PM)
Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Lito Atienza is taking no chances to let the famed Balili River in Benguet go the way of polluted Pasig River under his watch.
Atienza recently ordered that a comprehensive program be drawn up that would connect all of Baguio City’s 52,302 households (as of year 2000) 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 begin sitting down with the water district officials, local government officials, concerned non-government organizations for the drafting of the proposal,” Atienza said. He noted that the proposal will be evaluated for possible funding by agencies assisting the DENR implement its environmental projects like the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank.
“I don’t want Balili River to go the way that Pasig River due to urbanization and be added to the list of dead rivers. Not under my watch,” Atienza said.
Atienza explained that like Pasig River, most if not all of the pollution load in Balili River comes from domestic wastewater directly discharging to the river.
Citing reports, Atienza said only one-third of the city’s population is connected while about 80% of the total volume of water discharged daily into the river is untreated from households.
“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.
According to Paquito Moreno, regional director of DENR’s Environmental Management Bureau-CAR, 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 that only 25 per cent 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 to service local and foreign tourist which may well be adding to the problem.
In 2005, about 637,000 tourist arrivals were recorded, generating almost PhP4 billion in revenues. The city has 109 hotels, inns and lodging houses, with 4,687 rentable rooms.
A 2004 study showed that the city’s government-run sewage treatment plant covered only about 19% of the city’s population and 40 percent of these was comprised mostly of 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.
But efforts to clean the river is concentrated on the 15 kilometer-stretch starting on the eastern side of Baguio City at the Gibraltar area, cite of the Mines View Park, and threading through the Teachers’ Camp, the city’s central business district and downwards La Trinidad Valley where the water is used to irrigate vegetable farms in the area.
