CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga, Philippines—Salt water from Manila Bay has damaged some 7,000 hectares of rice lands in the coastal villages of Pampanga, Bulacan and Bataan in the last five years, forcing farmers to convert more than 1,000 ha of those lands into fish ponds.
Cases of saltwater intrusion in communities at the mouth of the Pampanga River have been steadily occurring during high tides in summer, said Remedios Ongtangco, director of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) in Central Luzon.
“There is sea [level] rise, which is an effect of global warming,” Ongtangco said in a telephone interview on Tuesday.
She said reports indicated that seawater has submerged farmlands in Minalin, Macabebe and Masantol towns in Pampanga; Hagonoy and Calumpit towns in Bulacan; and Hermosa and Orani towns in Bataan.
The cases have become frequent in the last two years and worse when waters from upper Pampanga River and high tide from the Manila Bay meet at the mouth of the river, said Marcelo Lacap Jr., former vice mayor of Masantol and a fish pond owner.
The BFAR has helped farmers cope by developing hatcheries for saltwater tilapia fingerlings.
“Tilapia is a freshwater fish. But these are made to adapt to high levels of saline water,” Ongtangco said.
The Medium-Term Regional Development Plan in Central Luzon targets an increase in agriculture productivity and farming income.