Swedish experts helping revive Guiguinto River

GUIGUINTO, Bulacan — Swedish environmentalists have joined the municipal government in reviving the Guiguinto River, one of the five waterways in the province declared "biologically dead" by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in the late 90s.

Engineer Aurelio Cruz, municipal administrator, told The STAR the rehabilitation project would not only revive the old splendor of the Guiguinto River, but would also help spark economic activity in the town’s northeastern villages.

"The planned rehabilitation will also revive passenger and product transport through the river," Cruz said, noting that the river used to be the town’s primary transport route.

Early this year, Swedish environmental experts and the Sweden Association of Local Authorities for International Development (Salaida) conducted an ocular inspection of the five-kilometer stretch of the Guiguinto River from Barangay Poblacion to Barangay Daungan.

The environmentalists noted heavy siltation in the river and the lack of wastewater treatment facilities for households.

Last month, Cruz and other municipal officials visited Botkyrka Kommun in Sweden where they studied environmental protection as part of the "twin-town initiative" between the Bulacan provincial government and the municipality of Botkyrka.

At present, dredging of the river’s five-kilometer stretch is underway, while the municipal government has initiated massive data collection, including water testing, to determine if the water still has metallic content.

Mayor Ambrosio Cruz said noodle factories and tanneries used to dot both sides of the river, but shut down a few years ago.

He said the factories had no wastewater treatment facilities and dumped their effluents into the river, contributing to its "biological death."

Cruz suspects that households are largely to blame for the river’s pollution, but said they still have to document everything to come up with concrete measures to address this.

"We will come up with a strict policy that will curb disposal of household effluents that pollute the river," he said.

Asked if this was feasible, Cruz said they had done it before.

Three years ago, Cruz initiated the Isang Milyong Kalinisan, a "clean and green" program that drew the participation of residents.

"We must have a solid position on this project to convince our constituents, and as we saw in the past, they are ready to support us because they (know that) all these (things would) benefit their communities and their children," he said.

Cruz, meanwhile, said they have identified the sites of at least three transport stations along the Guiguinto River.

"If we look at the current trend in trading, the immediate vicinities (of these transport stations) would become growth areas because more people would frequent them and more businesses would sprout there," he said.