Pampanga towns to be classified as water quality management areas

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is poised to classify certain towns in Pampanga as water quality management areas to address the worsening water contamination in the rivers and coastal areas in the province.

This plan was hatched after a report was released that water pollution has caused P50-million worth of losses in tilapia and prawn production in Minalin town in the last six months. A report of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) also showed the poor water quality in the river systems in Pampanga.

Lormelyn Claudio, director of the DENR’s Environmental Management Bureau in Region 3, said the towns that will be classified as water quality management areas include the aquaculture-dependent town of Minalin and its neighboring municipalities.

Places classified as water quality management areas will be given priority in the government’s effort to rehabilitate water systems nationwide.

"We will designate Minalin and adjoining towns into water quality management areas, help establish a governing board and develop water quality management area plan, pursuant to the Clean Water Act," Claudio said.

Environment Secretary Angelo Reyes said that addressing the problem in Pampanga would need the strict implementation of solid waste management since many pollutants come from land sources, including industries on riverbanks and dwellers near bodies of water.

Reyes has given numerous directives to DENR regional offices and agencies under its jurisdiction to give priority to the clean up of inland and coastal water areas. He has, in fact, taken over the responsibility of cleaning up the Pasig River as soon as he assumed office as the DENR chief last Feb. 16. — Katherine Adraneda