So many tears and weeping over troubled waters are still seen and heard, more than a week after the onslaught of storm Ondoy. The devastation brought by raging waters has turned subdivisions and road networks into vast, pitiful wastelands. And the blame-game syndrome among politicians and government officials has worsened the pain of the homeless, destitute and suffering victims. Who is to blame for the floods? Laguna Lake Development Authority manager Ed Manda for his alleged inability to dismantle fish pens on the lake? The town mayors who cannot stop thousands of “informal dwellers” (the euphemistic term for squatters) from sprouting everywhere and clogging the waterways? The futile efforts of Environment Secretary Lito Atienza to stop illegal loggers from denuding forests and watersheds? You and I can put the blame on any of these guys, and we don’t know when a government master development plan to stop the floods and squatters from ruining lives and property can be developed that is effectively implementable.
The papers have quoted Secretary Atienza as recommending the abolition of the Laguna Lake Development Authority (LLDA) if the agency fails to clear the lake of thousands of illegal structures, particularly fish pens. LLDA is an attached agency of DENR and is the sole authority to oversee the clearing of fish pens in the lake.
Manda, for his part, told Bulong Pulungan Tuesday that he was waiting for Secretary Atienza to sue him. At the forum he showed a video film of the extent of flooded areas, of denuded mountains, of squatter communities (he specifically identified a community of about 25,000 families in Sitio Lupang Arenda that straddles Taguig, Taytay and Cainta causing the clogging of floodways and outlets, resulting in the slow flow of water from the Laguna Lake to the Napindan Channel in Taguig into the Pasig River and then to Manila Bay and consequently the flooding of subdivisions and roads. In the meantime, Laguna Lake had risen, discharging from 2.5 billion to more than 5 billion gallons of water as rains began to pour beginning September 26. Manda was saying 10 hectares of illegal fishpens had been dismantled, and the remaining 10,000 hectares of legal (with titles) fish pens could not be the cause of the clogging of Laguna Lake.
As if the depression that the floods have created were not enough, the squabbling among government officials has unnecessarily upset President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who asked that Atienza and Manda patch things up.
Muntinlupa City Representative Rufino “Ruffy” Biazon has been quoted as saying that the problems that have been cited “can be addressed, plus the deterioration of the lake can still be reversed, and although the results could be too late to alleviate the current plight of those mostly affected, their desolation should give urgency to the task of saving Laguna Lake and preventing another catastrophe from happening again.”
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Here are facts about Laguna Lake, gleaned from the Internet. It is the largest lake in the Philippines and the third largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia (in terms of surface area) after Tonle Sap in Cambodia and Lake Toba in Sumatra, Indonesia.
Laguna Lake (also called Laguna Caldera) is believed to have been formed by two major volcanic eruptions, around one million and 27,000-29,000 years ago. Remnants of its volcanic history are shown by the presence of maars at the southern end of Talim Island.
The Laguna Lake is a large shallow freshwater body in the heart of Luzon, with an aggregate area of 911.36 kilometers and a shoreline of 220 kilometers.
The lake is shaped like a stylized “W”, with two peninsulas jutting out from the northern shore. It drains to Manila Bay via the Pasig River. There is a large island in the lake, Talim Island, which is under the jurisdiction of the towns of Binangonan and Cardona in Rizal province. It is bordered by the province of Laguna in the east, west and southwest, the province of Rizal in the north to northeast, and Taguig, Pateros, Pasig and Marikina (all of which are cities and municipalities in Metropolitan Manila) in the northwest.
The lake has an average depth of 2.8 meters and its excess water is discharged through the Pasig river. It is fed by 45,000 sq. kilometers of catchment areas and its 21 major tributaries.
The lake is a navigation lane for passenger boats, source of water for a nearby hydroelectric power plant, food support for the growing duck industry, aquaculture, recreation fishery, flood control, source of irrigation water and a “virtual” cistern for domestic, agricultural, and industrial effluents. Because, according to the Internet, of its importance, Laguna Lake’s water quality and general condition are closely monitored. This important water resource has been greatly affected by development pressures like population growth, rapid industrialization, and resources allocation.
Government data show that about 60 percent of the estimated 8.4 million people residing in the Laguna de Bay region discharge their solid and liquid wastes indirectly to the lake through its tributaries. A large percentage of these wastes are mainly agricultural, while the rest are either domestic or industrial.
According to DENR 1997 data, domestic and industrial wastes contribute almost equally at 30 percent each, and agricultural wastes take up the remaining 40 percent. The hastened agricultural modernization throughout the region paved the way for massive and intensified use of chemical-based fertilizers and pesticides whose residues eventually find their way to the lake basin. These chemicals, according to the Internet, induce rapid algal growth in the area that deplete oxygen levels in the water. Hence, oxygen available to the lake is being used up, thereby depleting the available oxygen for the fish, causing massive fish kills.
As far as domestic wastes are concerned, around 10 percent of the 4,100 metric tons of waste generated by residents of Metro Manila are dumped into the lake. As reported by the defunct Metropolitan Manila Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS), only 15 percent of the residents in the area have an effective waste disposal system. Moreover, around 85 percent of the families living along the shoreline do not have toilets.
Because of the problems facing and threatening the potential of the lake, President Ferdinand Marcos signed into law Republic Act (RA) 4850, otherwise known as the law creating LLDA. LLDA is the main agency tasked to oversee the programs that aimed to develop and protect Laguna Lake. Its charter was strengthened by Presidential Decree 817 in 1975 and Executive Order 927 in 1983 to include governmental protection and jurisdiction over the surface waters of the lake basin. In 1993, by virtue of the devolution, the administrative supervision of the LLDA was transferred to the DENR by EO 149.
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