27 NOVEMBER 2007

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EXPERTS AND activists agree that keeping our water resources from being polluted is not a matter of having more laws. They point out that there are already significant pieces of legislation that could help keep our waters clean, such as the Clean Water Act, the Marine Pollution Control Decree, and the Pollution Control Law. But as with other laws, they say the problem lies in the implementation. There is also a need to invest in proper infrastructure like an improved sewage treatment system that can treat bigger volumes of household wastewater discharges.

The EMB itself cited cheaper alternatives to conventional sewage treatment, such as wetlands that can serve as simple and low-cost wastewater treatment plants, which use natural processes for filtration and cleaning. Partially treated sewage can also be used for fish propagation.

UP-MSI’s Fortes also suggests implementing an integrated coastal management system, instead of focusing all our resources into saving the coral reefs alone or mangroves alone.

“We must look at seagrass, mangroves, or coral reefs as one integrated ecosystem interacting with one another, and helping with one another,” he says. “Some people mistakenly think that the sea is all about coral reefs. “

Fortes points out that seagrass is usually left out of efforts to protect coastal waters, even though these provide food and habitat to marine animals and help keep water bodies clean by absorbing nutrients from coastal run-off.

In a project that he coordinated recently up north in Pangasinan, Fortes has made seagrass the star. The Bolinao Seagrass Demonstration Site (BSDS), funded by the UN Environmental Program (UNEP), aims to protect, conserve, and maintain the seagrass beds in Bolinao in an effort to keep the Lingayen Gulf as clean as possible.

Fortes says that one of the successful ventures that has been implemented through BSDS is the marketing of salted and dried rabbit fish, locally known as padas, which live in seagrass meadows. If the project is maintained, however, Pangasinan may have a bounty of other fresh and pollution-free offerings from the sea for your dining pleasure.

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