THE assessment on the condition of coastal and marine habitats of Cordova town and Talisay City should be completed immediately, an expert from the University of the Philippines-Visayas said yesterday.
Dr. Resurreccion Sadaba, a professor from the University of the Philippines Visayas (UPV), said the rapid assessment will help authorities determine their next plan of action by resolving the oil spill in a “scientific manner.”
“My recommendation is to make a rapid assessment on the mangroves and the other habitats including the people. That’s if funds are available,” he told reporters yesterday.
But to conduct the assessment, Sadaba said it will require the help of faculty and students from the academe specifically researchers from the University of the Philippines Cebu (UP Cebu) and University of San Carlos (USC).
Costly
“This will cost big. In Guimaras, we needed to conduct 30 simultaneous studies that’s why it was expensive. The researchers weren’t even given payment,” he said.
He said the assessment will also give them the opportunity to share techniques with researchers from the local universities on how to mitigate the effects of the spill.
Lesser damage
Compared to the oil spill in Guimaras, Sadaba said the oil spill caused by the fuel from the sunken MV St. Thomas Aquinas is “less severe.”
He said in his site inspection he has yet to find a particular area where the oil was highly-concentrated.
“In my inspection, I haven’t seen oil that pooled in one site unlike in Guimaras where the oiling was really severe,” he said.
“In Guimaras, the odor of the spill was so foul you could smell it from afar,” he added.
Sadaba also advised residents who want to volunteer in the cleanup to instead help in making oil absorbent booms to avoid the health risks of the body’s exposure to oil.
“We want to avoid that problem. By doing work, we’re causing more harm at the end of the day,” he said./Correspondent Peter L. Romanillos