Environment Secretary Ramon Paje. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / NINO JESUS ORBETA
MANILA, Philippines—Environment officials are working to restore and rehabilitate a highly polluted river that traverses a densely populated area in Cebu.
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources has declared the 23-kilometer Butuanon River a “water quality management area” or WQMA, a move which will help officials implement and coordinate its rehabilitation.
Environment Secretary Ramon Paje recently signed an administrative order designating the river a WQMA “in a bid to restore its long-term health and protect it from further damage caused by development activities,” the DENR said in a press statement.
The administrative order sets the political and administrative boundaries of the WQMA down to the barangay level for the rehabilitation of the Butuanon River along densely populated areas in the cities of Cebu and Mandaue.
The river is considered as a highly contaminated water body due to development and industrialization, according to the DENR. Its riverbank areas downstream are also occupied by informal settlers that mainly contribute to water pollution, the statement added.
“The urgency to maintain an acceptable water quality in the Butuanon River is of utmost importance to both the national and local governments because it is essential to public health and livelihood of the people of Cebu and Mandaue cities,” Paje said in the statement.
As a WQMA, the river will be placed under close monitoring to ensure that its water quality complies with the standards set by Republic Act 9275, or the Philippine Clean Water Act of 2004.
There are now a total of 19 WQMAs nationwide since the enactment of the clean water law, 13 of which were designated under the current administration.
The new WQMA covers a total area of 1,500 hectares, spanning 33 barangay in Cebu and Mandaue cities.
Its upper watershed, which lies within Cebu City, consists of a grassy, deforested mountain with patches of agricultural activity and quarrying, while the lower portion within Mandaue City’s jurisdiction passes through residential, commercial and industrial areas.
About 10 kilometers of the river’s length passes through Metro Cebu, and most significantly, Mandaue’s heavily industrialized and densely populated areas.
The DENR, in 2002, classified the Butuanon River as Class “D,” referring to bodies of water that can be used for agriculture, irrigation, livestock and industry.
But last year, monitoring by the Environmental Management Bureau of the DENR showed that the river’s average biochemical oxygen demand value had exceeded the standard for Class “D,” and its average dissolved oxygen was below standard.
The EMB also noted that there was an increasing trend in total and fecal coliform – bacteria that indicate the presence of sewage contamination of a waterway – in all the sampling stations along the river.
According to EMB, the pollution in Butuanon River was in an “alarming state being highly polluted with industrial and domestic wastes.”
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