Monday, December 24, 2007 Stench drives cleaners away
FIRST, the Marine Forces Reserve Central. Now, the Badjaos.
The stench, contamination and iron bars protruding from the lagoon’s depths dissuaded at least 20 Badjaos from cleaning the lagoon in a private property in Barangay Labangon, Cebu City, which officials feared to be a breeding site for dengue-carrying mosquitoes.
“They complained about the smell. They also worried about getting pierced by the iron bars,” said City Councilor Gerardo Carillo.
The Badjaos waded yesterday into the lagoon, which occupies 1.4 hectares of the two-hectare property, and tried swimming, only to withdraw back to their bancas and complain they were itching all over their bodies.
Mayor Tomas Osmeña earlier wanted predatory fishes like rainbow fish and silver fish introduced in the lagoon to feed on mosquito larvae.
This, after City Epidemiologist Durinda Macasocol expressed apprehensions on pouring used oil because of its possible adverse effects on the environment.
Used oil
Labangon has the highest incidence of dengue fever among seven severely affected barangays.
The mayor visited the lagoon last Saturday before leaving for the United States with his wife Margot to spend the holidays there with their son Miguel.
After seeing the lagoon last Saturday, City Health Department Head Fe Cabugao warned against the introduction of predatory fishes because the water is so polluted the fishes would just die.
The lagoon was formed after rainwater and sewage settled in a 15-meter excavation for a commercial complex was abandoned in 1997.
The mayor’s suggestion to pour used oil is still the method that was adopted since the stinky water could not be drained while sewage continued to pour in from the nearby residential areas.
Surfacing
But since the water’s surface needed to be cleaned, Badjaos were hired for P200 a day to collect the garbage, algae, grass and other debris.
Carillo said the algae has to be removed because it collected the used oil they poured into the lagoon, supposedly to destroy the larvae.
Carillo said they will try to convince another group of Badjaos to take the challenge. This time, the City will equip them with protective gear.
He will also advise them not to even wade into the greenish water and just cast their nets to gather the algae.
The councilor said that although the Marine reservists declined to take on the task of cleaning the lagoon’s surface, fearing that the iron bars might puncture their rubber boat, they will try bringing in a tugboat as a stable platform from which the Badjaos could cast their nets.
In a separate interview, Labangon Barangay Captain Felix Abella said that the City has decided to fund the construction of a drainage system so that sewage and wastewater from the nearby houses would no longer run into the lagoon.
Nearly 2T cases
The barangay, he said, will prepare the program of works and estimates and try to negotiate with owners to allow the drainage system to traverse their property towards N. Bacalso Ave. and connect with the existing drainage.
He said the City will also provide four more pumps, aside from two from the City Department of Public Services and one from the Bureau of Fire Protection since last Saturday, to drain the lagoon.
Carillo said he will also speak with representatives of the commercial complex project for the use of its pipes.
From Jan. 1 to Dec. 18, the City Health Department recorded 1,946 dengue fever cases in Cebu City, with 48 deaths. (All over the country, 380 have died of dengue fever as of Nov. 17.)
Central Visayas has the third highest number of dengue cases in the country this year, or about 11 percent of all recorded cases. Nationwide, at least 40,538 dengue fever cases were recorded as of Nov. 17, an all-time high for the country, Dr. Enrique Tayag of the National Epidemiology Center of the Department of Health has said. (RHM)
