Government, private sector team up to protect Laguna Lake

Through "Bayanihan," The Laguna Development Authority (LLDA) spearheaded recently the holding of the 3rd Laguna de Bay Stakeholders Conference with the theme "Linking Communities Towards Lake Stewardship" without any cost to the government. Support was provided by the Conservation Laguna de Bay’s Environment and Resources (CLEAR) Partnership.

CLEAR Partnership, a tri-partile agreement among Unilever Phils. Society for the Conservation of Philippine Wetlands (SCPW) and LLDA is a model of a government, business sector and civil society alliance. The tripartite partnership has been instrumental in the promotion of the conservation of Laguna de Bay. CLEAR Partnership is responsible for the inclusion of Laguna Lake as the 18th member of the Living Lakes in the World. The partners are looking forward to host the 10th Living Lakes Conference in 2005.

During the Conference, LLDA general manager Jun A. Ynares said his agency is currently studying how to directly involve every household in addressing domestic waste, which constitutes 60 percent of the total pollution load of the lake. He urged everyone to do his or her share of the lake’s conservation.

Unilever Phils general manager for corporate development Chito Macapagal said it is everyone’s duty to help in the conservation of the environment because "we owe it to the generations to come."

SCPW executive director Amy Lecciones urged the stakeholders to exercise lake stewardship in whatever way they can.

DENR Undersecretary Demetrio Igancio, who represented DENR Secretary Michael Defensor, underscored the value of active involvement of all sectors of society, especially the stakeholders in making Laguna Lake a living lake.

Laguna Lake is a 90,000–hectare body of water with at least 100 streams draining into it. It cradles a region of approximately 292,000 hectares encompassing six provinces, 12 cities, 40 municipalities and 2,675 barangays, 187 of which are within the lakeshore towns. It is bounded by the provinces of Laguna to the south and Rizal to the north.

It is situated at the heart of Calabarzon where about six million people reside and close to 4,000 industries are doing business. Its most dominant use is in fisheries. Other uses include as source of power generation and domestic water supply, transport route, reservoir for floodwater, irrigation and industrial cooling.