Pangasinan rivers cleared of illegal structures

DAGUPAN CITY, Philippines – The river systems of this city are now 90 percent clear of illegal structures, according to city Mayor Benjamin Lim during his State of the City Address the other day at the City People’s Astrodome here.

“As of today, 90 percent of our rivers are now cleared of illegal structures and fish pens, and we will not stop until we have reached our 100 percent objective,” said Lim in his speech.

He said they have inititiated a massive fishpen clearing operation and a moratorium in the issuance of Aquaculture Lease Agreements (ALA’s), “in hopes of letting our rivers recover from further environmental degradation, and to give way to the operations that will be conducted by the dredging machines of the province.”

Lim said city agriculturist Emma Molina has identified four critical areas which must be dredged immediately: Salapingao-Dupo to Centro, Patogcawen in Dawel, Tanap, and Pugaro. “These areas have been declared critical because there are parts where the water level is less than one meter in depth. We hope to recover about three to four meters in terms of water depth once the dredging operations are completed. It will take about a year to dredge the three main branches of our river system, operating at normal conditions, and both machines working at the same time,” Lim said.

He said fishermen in the city have started to reap from the removal of the unwanted structures in the rivers.

Lim said that based on interviews conducted by the City Agriculture Office, fishermen now catch more fish because many of them are now able to swim upstream.

The increase of fish catch allowed the fishermen to increase their daily income from P200 to P300 before, to as much as P500 to P600 pesos now.

Lim lauded Molina and Butch Gutierrez, the heads of clearing operations, as their task was not an easy to accomplish.