Pollution: onus of progress

Media

Part of The Republic

Title: Pollution: onus of progress
Identifier: The RP ecology
Language: English
Source: The Republic (Issue No. 24) 1 September 1973
Year: 1973
Subject: Environmental health -- Philippines; Pollution -- Environmental aspects -- Philippines
Rights
Fulltext: The °Nation Ul Restoring the grandeur of a dying waterway The Pasig river spans more than 10 bridges, joins 5 minor channels from Laguna Lake, snakes through Manila in a sharp U-tum to look like a semi-vermiform appendix on the map, widens by 300 feet, deepens by 6 to 12 and even 14 feet when it fuses with the Marikina and San Juan tributaries, until, after a 25-kilometer stretch, it locks up with the waters of Manila Bay. Water lilies and quiapo plants in the 19th century, uprooted by floo.dwaters, clogged the river and, decom posing, emitted foul odor. Burgeoning industrial factories in the 1950s, strewn along the riverbanks, churned enough waste into the Pasig to cause widescale pollution. And today, in the 70s, 150 factories from San Miguel, Taguig, Pateros and related districts dump 90,000 pounds of food parti cles, bits of cloth, chlorine and like organic solids into the Pasig river — daily. The discharged industrial waste, revealed a Congress report in 1971, is equivalent to the waste of 2 million persons a day. Manila residents, in the meantime, add about 70,000 pounds of organic pollutants daily — garbage, debris, domestic wastes — and kill any organism in the river within the city. Aquatic life is impossible. During the dry season alone the river yields 30 to 1,000 ppm (parts per million) of pollution, dissolves a maximum oxygen level of 2 ppm, and requires a very high biochemical oxygen demand (BOD). Squatter shanties lying along the riverbanks complicate the Pasig’s problems. Of the 1,537 families squatting, 1,171 are classified as “indigent families” (with incomes less than P250 a month) and 368 are classified as “non-indigent families,” with dwellings made of strong mate rials and appliances that include television sets. These squatters’ co lonies are grouped around the indus trial enclaves of Punta, Sta. Ana and Sta. Mesa, the semi-urban areas of Napindan in Taguig and Sta. Rosa in Pasig town, and the Del Pan and Ayala bridges. Vessels, shipwrecks, abandoned junks, decaying boats, barges, floating logs, complete the river’s deteriora Page 2 tion. The waters are left poisoned by rust and the seepage from septic tanks and sewers. The brackish waters no longer answers to Rizal’s play “Along the Pasig” Here the river gives in beauty Peace of heart and kind, Here the soul beset with beauty Happiness may find. and, far from reflecting the light of the dying sun in the evenings, chum out filth and smell that would take, by practical analysis, 20 years to efface. The 20 years may yet be cut down, drastically. A Pasig River Develop ment Project, headed by Mrs. Imelda Romualdez Marcos, has begun clearing the river. The project, backed up by a budget that would soar to P77.7 million, covers the dredging and removal of all impurities, the building of roads, parks, lagoons and prome nades in specified areas, the installa tion of 'ornamental lights and railings, the planting of trees along the riverbanks. The project will tie up with the long-range plan to convert Manila Bay into a commercial, residential and tourist complex. Model duck farms will be set up in the Pateros area. A ferry service for commuters, with floating boarding stations at strategic points to relieve traffic snarls in adjoining cities and towns, will be opened. Squatter areas along river banks will be relocated in Tanay, Rizal and Dasmarinas, Cavite. In all, the relocation of squatters, flood control, sewerage disposal, clearing of esteros are integrated into the “Help Clean the Pasig” drive. (Another project, the Laguna Lake Development, which calls for the exploitation of the full economic potential of the 90,000-hectare La guna Lake, will be interwoven with the plan to revitalize the Pasig.) President Marcos has pitched in P5 million for a start. And last August 16, Mrs. Marcos, Cabinet secretaries and Metropolitan councilors and engi neers boarded a navy launch through the Pasig for the initial survey. The first phase has been scheduled for completion by December of this year. At the moment, the Pasig River Development Council has ordered the dispersal until September 15 this year of boats moored along the riverbanks and the removal of sunken boats, rafts, other water vessels, logs and other buried wastes. The government and the private sector will pool their resources to complete the first phase. When the Pasig finally lives again, she can pick up from a proud history Pre-Malay kingdoms, as early as 12 A.D. during the Sung and Ming dynasties, clustered along the Manila Bay and around the gaping mouth of the Pasig river. Its riparian inhabitants, mostly farmers and fishermen, traded with merchants from Japan, China, Borneo and Siam (modem Thailand). By the Pasig, they unloaded their cargoes of cotton, silk, gold, pearls, glass, iron, damask ,and linen. This early civilization was unearth ed in a series of excavations in and around Manila. The Sta. Ana cemetery diggings in 1966, about 120 meters from the riverbank, turned out pot tery, skulls and graves containing utensils and jewels. In 1967, world renown anthropologist Dr. Robert Fox and archaeologist Alfredo Evan gelista made the pronouncement: the Pasig was Manila’s cradle of civiliza tion in early times. The 16th century found about a thousand inhabitants concentrated on the main banks of the river. The population number was low; mortality rates outpaced birth rates, cholera and dysentery took a heavy toll on the population each year. Spaniards founded the city of Manila in 1654 on the southern bank of the river. They then transformed the Pasig into a natural fortification. The northern bank became the com mercial suburb and, in 400 years, the city of Manila became a teeming metropolis and the southern bank a heady port center. One day, with the Pasig revitaliza tion program promising thus, the tropical vegetation on the banks will once more grow, the motorboats, barges, rowboats and cargoboats will again anchor and trade in a habitable commerical waterway, and the sights by the river will then recall the Pasig that Rizal, Balagtas and Abelardo knew. THE RP ECOLOGY Pollution: Onus of progress There was a minimum of fanfare but a maximum of collective thinking when the country’s top ecologists took up Philippine environmental problems early this month. The overall Philippine ecological pic ture was bleak. Dr. Francois Bourliere, consultant and chairman of UNESCO’s International Coordinating Council on Man and the Biosphere (MAB) program, warned that the Philippine environmental health prob lem was at “a serious stage.” Dr. Reynaldo Lesaca, commissioner of the National Water and Air Pollution Control Commission, pointed out that the Pasig river might not be salvaged at all if it continued to be the dump ing site of industrial and domestic wastes. Other scientists and research ers, mostly university-based, took to task the Filipino’s mismanagement of his environment. They said this had led to environmental disturbances, depletion of natural resources, accu mulation of environmental pollutants, deterioration of the biosphere and uncontrolled population explosion. It was amid this air of crisis that the MAB seminar-workshop reeled off at the National Science Development Board planetarium on August 3. The three-day meet was aimed at produc ing concrete proposals for inter-' disciplinary researches to be conduct ed in the Philippines as part of its contribution to the worldwide MAB program. The proposals would also be “the basis within the natural and social sciences for the rational use and conservation of the resources of the biosphere and for improvement of the global relationship between man and the environment.” Of the 13 projects proposed by the MAB National Committee and con sidered by the International Coordinating Council during its 17th general conference held in Paris in October last year, five were given priority. These ranged from determin ing the ecological effects of increasing human activities on tropical and sub tropical ecosystems, on lakes, marshes and estuaries to warding off pollution effects on terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems. Five of the 13 “task forces” created to tackle the specific core project proposals came out with alarming initial findings. Task Force 1, for instance, headed by Dr. Ireneo Domingo of the Uni versity of the Philippines’ College of Forestry — charged with measuring ecological effects on tropical eco systems — revealed that forest destruc tion by illegal cutting and kainginmaking (shifting agriculture) was go ing on at a rapid rate of 170,000 hec tares per year. The kaingin-method damaged some 30,000 to 40,000 hec tares last year. Dr. Emil Javier of the UP College of Agriculture and Task Force 2 chair man, reported that of the country’s 3,476,000 hectares of grassland, 971,000 hectares had been leased by 1 September 1973 THE REPUBLIC The °Nation the government to private indus trialists for grazing purposes. Of 2 million heads of cattle, half a million are raised on these grasslands, of which the major part are scattered in Cagayan valley in northeastern Luzon, Mindoro, Masbate, Bukidnon and Cotabato in Mindanao. Dr. Javier claimed that the emerg ing problem was to ascertain how the raising of cattle and other animalshad affected the grasslands, tundra and savanna — and how these ecosystems could be made more productive. A study of an area’s ecosystem, he added, and its rational and optimum modes of utilization and development with respect to its land could be a good start for a ecological probe. Dr. Javier suggested Mindoro island as the ideal microcosm because of its rich natural resources (marble, silica, copper, corals, logs, rattan and fish) as well as potential tourist areas, like Puerto Galera and Lake Naujan. Task Force 3 was assigned the task, among other things, of surveying the island’s net primary productivity and litter decomposition, and following up ecological changes attendant to plant succession and sedimentation rate, and ultimately, “providing guidelines for the optimal management and utili POPULATION PROJECTION The 16th most populous nation The formulation of a country’s so cial, economic and political policies is determined by the growth, change and distribution of its population. Statisti cal compilations are integral part in the drawing up of development strate gies for countries that especially cons titute the Third World. On the domestic front, it is the Bu reau of Census and Statistics (BCS) which collates such valuable informa tion to serve as basis for government and private planning. A total of 36,684,486 people were registered by the BCS on May 6, 1970, ranking thus the country as the 16th largest among the world’s popu lation, with an annual growth rate of 3.01 per thousand population. Population density, if evenly distri buted, would be 122.3 persons per square kilometer. This variation in population distribution ranges from a low to a high concentration and dif fers from one region to another. Hence, the uneven distribution of population density in the following areas: Region Ill-Cagayan Valley and Batanes, 54.5; Region I — Manila and suburbs, 34,746.4; Region IV-Central Luzon, 215.7; Region VH-Westem Visayas, 175.4; Region VI-Bicol and Masbate, 168.3; Region II-Ilocos and Mt. Province, 71.1; Region IX-Northem Mindanao, 75.7; Region X-Southem Mindanao and Sulu, 79.6 and Re gions V and VUI-Southem Luzon and islands and Eastern Visayas, 148.0 and 148.8, respectively. Manila and Rizal have the h ighest population densities of 34,746.4 and 1,529.7, respectively. On the other hand, the least populated provinces are: Palawan, 15.9; Kalinga-Apayao, 19.3; Agusan del Sur, 19.5 and Occi dental Mindoro with 24.5. Manila still holds the distinction as the most populated city in the Philip pines, followed by Basilan City, 108.4; General Santos City, 107.9 and zation of grazing lands.” Task Force 5, on the other hand, was charged with studying municipal and domestic sewage and identifying substances entering rivers, lakes, estuaries and coastal zones by drain age or erosion. Task Force 6 would probe into the impact of human activ ities on the Philippine mountain ecosystems. Specifically, the unit, chairmanned by Dr. Raymundo Punongbayan, a UP geologist, would look into the ecologic effects of shift ing agriculture, logging, mining, etc. The study of effects of pollutants on terrestrial and freshwater eco systems was assigned to Task Force 6. Its initial report that pollution was confined to cities jibed with Dr. Reynaldo Lesaca’s observations. The NWAPCC commissioner said the 150 firms located within the 30-kilometer radius from Manila dis pose an average of 5 million gallons of waste water daily and an average of 750,000 pounds of organic waste, directly affecting rivers like the Pasig, Guiguinto, Balagtas, Marilao, Meycauayan, Pasolo, Polo and others. And in a separate study, the NWAPCC found out that 15 to 20 ppm (parts per million) of carbon monoxide are emitted by some Calbayog City, 104.5. The city of Puerto Princesa, in contrast, has only a 17.9 population density. The urban population, which is about 31.8 percent of the total Philip pine population, is concentrated in I, 184 poblaciones and central districts and 1,218 barrios; the rest, 68.2 per cent, are scattered in the rural areas. Females predominate in the urban areas while the males abound in the rural communities. Urban population concentration in Manila, Rizal, Cebu and Negros Occidental comprise II. 39; 23.11; 5.59 and 4.31 percent of the total urban population. The least urbanized are the provinces of Ifugao, Kalinga-Apayao and Mountain Province. The relatively young age structure of the population is due to the past levels and trends of fertility, mortality and migration. High fertility accounts for the present high proportion of children over adults. High mortality, on the other hand, indicates that only a few people managed to reach the upper age scale; low mortality shows otherwise. The age median of 16.3 in 1972 is actually an increase over the 17.9 in 1970 because of constant fertility and a reduced rate of infant mortality. This makes the Philippines younger in terms of age composition. Ages 0-14 comprise 46.0 percent; 15-64, 513 percent; and 65 and over, 2.7 percent. Literacy rate in the country is 83.4 percent. The illiterates comprise only16.6 percent. As indicated in the report of the Bureau of Census and Statistics, females comprise 84.6 per cent of the total literate population as against the 82.2 percent for the males. Manila again holds the highest lite racy rate with 96.4 percent; Rizal, 95.8; Bulacan, 93.5; and Zambales, 93.1. Provinces with a low degree of literacy are: Sulu, 41.7; Ifugao, 50.6; Mt. Province, 61.5; Lanao del Sur, 289,232 motor vehicles daily in Greater Manila. Other pollutants from these vehicles include unbumed hydro-carbon from gasoline, parti culates, lead, oxidants (like ozone), alcohols (from gasoline combustion). As of June 1972, there were 281 firms surveyed and 117 factories sampled by the NWAPCC for stack emissions in the metropolis. Seventy-five fac tories sampled were found to have been contributing 2.55 tons of parti culates and 7.55 tons of sulfur dioxide a day. The work of Task Force 14 will be considerably boosted by a project drawn up by Mrs. Imelda Romualdez Marcos recently to salvage and beauti fy the Pasig river. All task forces would be supervised by a horizontal group manned by scientists active in various scientific fields. The horizontal outfit, headed by Dr. Estela LI. Zamora, dean of the UST Graduate School, would synthes ize existing information and insure disciplinary approach between natural and social scientists, such that plan ning and integration would be feasi ble. “Integration” or collective thinking Filipino menfolk: A preponderance of youth 63.4; and Cotabato, 64.9 percent. Over 40 percent of Philippine popu lation are children under 0-14 years of age. Average birth rate is between 7.1 and 10.8 per thousand population. The lowest death rate is registered in Lanao del Norte with 1.3; the highest in Northern Samar with 11.6 per thousand population. The different projections based on the actual head count of population and households are as follows: By 1980, the Philippine population will be 49.6 million under low projection; 51.0 million under medium projec tion; and 53.4 million under high proj ection. By 2000, it will have increased to 71.6 million; 83.9 million; and 96.6 million, respectively. The population projection is determined by rapid, gradual and constant fertility and a low decline in mortality. Women will continue to outnumber men until 1990 when the sex ratio will have in creased between 0.74 and 0.91 per cent over the males and will have,like wise, reached between 997.3 and 999.0 males per 1,000 females. The degree of change in density will vary considerably from 122.3 persons per square kilometer in 1970 to 162, 165, and 169 by 1980 and by 2000 to would relatively hasten ecological pro gram. This is gleaned from the fact that ecological problems, which are common in industrialized countries though, hardly surprising in under developed ones, cannot be solved by biologists alone. Pollution, moreover, has become a bio-physical pheno menon heavy with social and political implications. The MAB National Committee, likewise, headed by Dr. Zamora, was organized by the UNESCO National Commission of the Philippines on February 21 this year at the request of the UNESCO director-general. Composed of representatives from 17 government, private and academic institutions, the MAB National Committee coordinates and taps avail able manpower, laboratory equipment and other facilities, and maintains liaison with the Paris-based Inter national Coordinating Council and the government for consultancy and tech nical support. It is to coordinate pro jects with the Environmental Center chairmanned by Mrs. Marcos. Created by Executive Order 342, the Center oversees environmental projects being prepared by both the government and the private sector. 279, 328 and 332 under the low, medium and high projections, respec tively. The population under 15 years of age, according to high projection, will increase from 43.11 percent in 1970 to 43.50 percent and to 43.86 percent in 1980 but will decline from 43.13 in year 2000 to 29.72 in 2000. Those within the 15-64 working age group are expected to increase significantly by 2000, the increase varying from 53.41 percent to 65.58 percent. They will be self-supporting, with those under 15 and over 65 as dependents. What then are the implications of these changes in the age composition to the nation’s social and economic development? Under high projection, fertility will remain constant with a slow decline in mortality. This indi cates a high growth rate for a “young” population. This projection, however, does not augur well for the country because it affects — is in fact inimical to — production. Population growth in the long run will make capital for mation very difficult, thus keeping capital requirements for development in agriculture, medical and social im provement beyond the country’s fi nancial reach. THE REPUBLIC 1 September 1973 Page 3
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