CHILDREN play on the banks of the Butuanon River in Centro Landless, Barangay Canduman, the adults close by, in this stretch of Mandaue City seemingly untouched by industrialization.
Barangay tanod Nestor Tul-id catches catfish (“pantat”) and tilapia from this river right outside his house.
For about two weeks, he confines the live catfish in a pail of rainwater or water from the Metropolitan Cebu Water District (that has been vented), to rid the catfish of impurities. He eats everything but its head and guts.
Turtles, mudfish, guppies and rainbow fish also grow in the river, the residents volunteered.
Catfish is a hardy fish, said the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. It can survive in low-water, low-oxygen and polluted environments that would kill other fish.
In the early 2000s, Tul-id said, he could catch as many as 15-20 kilos of catfish a day from the river. But today, with so many others fishing for it, his catch has dwindled.
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources has long declared the river to be polluted. But Canduman Barangay Captain Leo Jabas said he hadn’t heard anyone complain of an upset stomach from eating the fish there.
Tul-id says the water in the river is “tin-aw” (clear).
But Antonio Yuri Yap, president of the former Butuanon River Industrial Community, the group of 33 industrial firms that discharged wastewater into the Butuanon River, warned: “Some pollutants are not visible to the eye. Even if the water is clear, they are there.”
Contamination
As early as 1996, industrial firms in the city had been criticized for discharging untreated wastewater directly into the Butuanon River, or for disposing of their wastewater in enclosed ponds and wells.
“Evidence indicates that these ponds and wells are causing contamination of groundwater, the primary source of drinking water for the Cities of Mandaue and Cebu. Metals have already been found in tests of pumped groundwater,” the fact sheet of the Butuanon River Watershed Management Project put together by the University of San Carlos Water Resources Center Foundation Inc. warned.
Studies
Fifteen years later, in 2011, a study found copper, lead and zinc in the sediments, water and catfish in the Butuanon River.
Calling copper, lead and zinc contamination “a serious hazard,” for their potential to accumulate in organisms, leading to disease and death, Ma. Kristina M. Oquiñena-Paler of the Department of Biology of the University of San Carlos (USC) in Talamban, Cebu City, and Rico Ancog of the School of Environmental Science and Management of the University of the Philippines Los Baños College in Laguna, collected samples from three sampling stations of Butuanon River. The purpose was to check if the fish in the river used for household consumption and commercial purposes was still safe for human consumption.
In “Copper, Lead and Zinc Concentration in Water, Sediments and Catfish (Clarias macrocephalus Gunther) from Butuanon River, Metro Cebu, Philippines,” the pair described the river’s upstream area, a residential area preceded with agricultural land, as the least polluted; and the midstream area as having high industrial activity amid the presence of furniture firms, a paint and thinner production facility, gas stations and oxygen-acetylene production facilities.
The worst water quality was downstream, they said, where food and feed production facilities, galvanized iron producers, aluminum production facilities, concrete mix facilities, furniture firms, gas stations, car service stations, supermarkets and a used oil treatment facility operated, all of which, except for the food and feed industries, potentially could discharge metals.
Butuanon River starts in Cebu City, flows through Mandaue City, then drains into the Mactan Channel.
Concentrations of lead in the catfish downstream exceeded the European standard of two ppm (parts per million) considered safe for human consumption. Lead was found at up to 3.32 ppm in the catfish’s muscle, 3.58 ppm in its gills, and 4.25 ppm in its liver.
Though lead was not found in the catfish collected upstream and midstream, this does not mean they passed the two ppm standard “since the method detection level is at 2.7 ppm,” they said.
As for zinc, the levels in the liver (up to 87.92 ppm) and gills (up to 61.69 ppm) of the catfish breached the 50 ppm European standard.
Exposure to lead could “impair enzymatic activity, reproductive capacity and development,” while zinc can become toxic in high concentrations, they said.
Other metals
Paler warned that these were not the only metals in the river, as studies done in 1995, 1997, 2000 and 2001 had shown the presence of arsenic, cadmium, Chromium VI, lead, mercury, copper, iron, manganese and nickel.
In its Department Order (DAO) 35, Series of 1990, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) called the first five substances above “toxic” and “deleterious.”
But in her study brief, Paler wrote that with Butuanon classified as a Class D river, the lowest classification in use and water quality, locators “liberally discharge effluents with heavy metals since DAO 35… has not established a maximum allowable limit for heavy metals in the effluents in Class D bodies of water.”
Thus, even if Class D rivers are intended for agriculture, irrigation, livestock watering and industrial cooling only, they would not even be suitable for these purposes if the presence of metals was elevated.
Testing
It was only last May 24 that the DENR issued DAO 2016-08 setting parameters for metals for all water body classifications. The order took effect in June.
But this offers little comfort because the DENR’s Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) 7 Regional Director William Cuñado said, “We are not testing for toxins.”
To check the Butuanon River’s quality, the only parameters the EMB 7 tests for are temperature, pH level, biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), dissolved oxygen (DO) and total suspended solids.
BOD refers to the amount of dissolved oxygen used by microorganisms to break down waste. As for dissolved oxygen, aquatic life need it for respiration. Rivers with high BOD or low DO are polluted.
What’s more, the new DAO 2016-08 standards for the discharge of effluents to any water body, regardless of classification, do not test for toxic chemicals used in modern-day production and economic activities, like beryllium, tin, vanadium and many of the volatile organic chemicals (VOCs).
“VOCs are known to affect the kidneys, the central nervous system and the liver, and are potentially carcinogenic,” the environmental advocacy group Greenpeace said.
New study
A later study by Leonila N. Adarna and Josephine M. Castañares of the USC Chemistry Department’s Chemistry Analytical and Environmental Section II, on the sediments of Butuanon River showed all three sampling sites (upper, mid- and downstream) of the river to be “heavily polluted” with copper from September 2012 to March 2013, based on US Environmental Protection Agency sediment quality guidelines. The sites were also “heavily polluted” with zinc in November and January.
In the same period, a separate study by the USC Chemistry Department’s Lora Mae G. Villegas, Leonila N. Adarna, Marilyn D. Piandong, Estherlina S. Ginete, Jill R. Quitayen, Rosemay N. Almirante, Ma. Charity Ruth U. Padayahag and Josephine M. Castañares showed that “lead and zinc in (guppy fish in the Butuanon River) exceeded the Food and Agriculture Organization/World Health Organization (2011) acceptable limit of 0.50 and 30 ppm, respectively.”
Still fishing
Oblivious to this, riverside residents continue to fish in the river.
Upstream, in Barangay Bacayan, Cebu City, riverside dwellers outside the Villa Leyson subdivision said they also caught catfish, tilapia and mudfish from the Butuanon River for frying or grilling.
Metals aren’t the only things they must contend with.
Ryan Abayata, an informal settler living near the wastewater outlets of Villa Leyson, said the river was still clean 20 years ago, “pero karon, daghan na mang subdivision (but now there are many subdivisions).”
Subdivisions along the river dispose of their wastewater into the Butuanon.
Harold Alcontin, operations officer of the Cebu City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office, said there were subdivisions within the three-meter easement of the Butuanon River in Barangays Binaliw, Pit-os, Talamban and Bacayan.
“That’s why maintenance (dredging or desilting) of the river cannot be implemented because these are already private titled lots. Our problem is access,” he said.
Solid waste
Aside from wastewater, solid waste also ends up in the river.
As two little boys bearing sacks containing trash passed by, riverbank dweller Lilian Opigal explained that the boys were paid P10-P50 per sack by residents in the area to dispose of their garbage, which they dutifully did, in the river, or by digging a hole next to the river where they buried the sacks.
Residents know they should not throw trash in the river, but some feel they have no choice, she said.
The garbage truck for non-biodegradable trash comes at noon on Tuesdays, when they have already left the house to go to work, while the truck for biodegradable trash comes at 4-5 a.m. on Fridays when they are still sleeping.
They had tried pooling their trash in a common place for pickup. But at times the garbage truck didn’t arrive, so “baho na kaayo ang chapel (The chapel started to stink),” Opigal said. So they scrapped the idea.
Piggeries along the river in Bacayan contribute to its pollution. The pens for the 30 pigs riverside dweller Agustin Lapis takes care of were hoisted just a few meters from the water’s edge.
Of the pigs’ urine and feces, Lapis said, “Modiritso sa sapa (They go straight to the river).”
Right to know
Describing the effects of pollutants on human health, Dr. Fe B. Walag, USC Water Resources Center Foundation Inc. director and manager of special projects, said: “If the pollutant is sewage, you will feel it right away. You could get loose bowel movement if the agent is biological. When the agent is chemical in nature, like Chromium VI, from the manufacturing industries, like painting and furniture, this is cancerous. But you don’t get it immediately. For 10-15 years, you are subjected to the risk of cancer. The symptoms won’t appear until 10 or more years later.”
Walag said people can experience health problems not just by drinking dirty water, but also by just wading in it. Pollution may come by food, air or the surroundings.
Despite Butuanon’s long reputation as a dirty river, neither the Department of Health 7 nor the Mandaue City Health Office has ever studied whether the river has directly caused diseases in the area.
Greenpeace Philippines detox campaigner Abigail Aguilar calls on the DENR to require industries to disclose the pollutants, especially the chemical waste, they discharge.
She said the public has a right to know what these industrial emissions are, since the “silent threats” of chemical and industrial pollution in their communities put their health at risk.
Water supplier
The Metropolitan Cebu Water District (MCWD) said the water it supplies from its 16 production wells in the Butuanon Watershed, the basin that catches rainwater that drains toward the Butuanon River, is safe to drink.
Most of these wells are located one to two kilometers away from the river, said Lemuel Canastra, manager of MCWD’s Environment and Water Resources Department.
“Only five wells are located 200 to 500 meters from the river, but they are in the Talamban and Canduman areas,” which are not very much populated by heavy industrial plants, he said.
He added that MCWD’s production wells are well sealed and the 30- to 50-meter water table in the area below the ground “makes enough thickness of silt, clay, sand and rock formation filter the Butuanon River water and make it potable before it joins the groundwater.”
For more than 20 years, physical, chemical and bacteriological analyses of water samples from these wells had shown no contamination from the dirty water from Butuanon, he said.
But other well owners also extract water in the watershed, and it is not known where this water goes.
Crafty haulers
To deal with domestic waste, Mandaue City should establish a sewerage system, Walag said.
“There is no sewerage system in the whole province of Cebu,” she said. “All we have are sectoral sewerage systems, possibly by business groups or parks.”
What the province has are two septage treatment facilities, one each in Cebu City and Cordova town.
The Cebu City facility in the North Reclamation Area accepts registered septic haulers from both Cebu and Mandaue Cities, she said.
But some private septic tank haulers just throw the waste they gather from households and firms into canals and rivers, without having it treated first in septage treatment facilities.
Placido Jerusalem, assistant officer-in-charge of Mandaue’s City Environment and Natural Resources Office (Cenro), said his office recently received a report that a septic hauler dumped its collected septic waste into the Butuanon. They are now conducting surveillance on the matter.
He said those discharging untreated wastewater into waterways will be penalized under Ordinance 14-2016-1108, passed on Aug. 24, establishing “A Proper Sewage Treatment and Septage Management System in Mandaue City.”
Bottomless tanks
Aside from solid septage, Walag said liquid from septic tanks also empties untreated into the river because before 2000, septic tanks in Cebu did not have a floor.
Emmanuel Espina, senior corporate planning specialist of MCWD’s corporate planning department, said a 2015 survey showed that “around 57 percent of the septic tanks are either open bottomed, not sealed or constructed not in accordance to the standards.”
Septic tanks with open bottom “leaching chambers” contaminate the groundwater because the water coming out of the septic tank is still polluted.
Ordinance 14-2016-1108 addresses this problem by requiring all homes and buildings to have septic tanks compliant with national standards and environmental laws.
The ordinance also mandates regular de-sludging of tanks; septage collection and transport services provided only by DENR or Department of Health (DOH)-accredited private entities or water utilities with permits, which shall dispose of or treat the collected septage also only in DENR and/or DOH disposal/treatment facilities with permits; and connection to existing sewer lines.
Septage management
At the Cebu City Environment and Natural Resources Office (CCENRO), executive assistant Lito Vasquez said the City Council enacted in 2014 City Ordinance 2398 mandating the implementation of a septage management program.
The program mandates the provision of sanitary toilets in houses and buildings, septic tanks compliant with specifications, mandatory desludging, accreditation of private septic desludgers, proper disposal of septic waste through the City’s Septage Treatment Plant, and the use of a Manifest Receipt from source of waste to disposal to avoid illegal dumping.
But the Cebu City Septage Management Board, created by the same ordinance, “failed to finish the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of the ordinance,” he said.
This also explains why his office lacks data on households and subdivisions with no septic tanks.
The CCENRO is now finalizing the IRR and expects approval for it from Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña this month.
Pipe system
Walag said that while sewage treatment is a good idea, for urban centers, “hauling is not advisable because of spillage; or else, we’ll need so many trucks. So the recommendation is sewerage, so that the waste in the pipe system goes directly to the treatment plant.”
She said that as early as 1986, a feasibility study for drainage and sewerage of the urban centers of Metro Cebu, Tagbilaran and Dumaguete City had already been conducted, but it was not implemented.
She acknowledged that the project was expensive.
“And people don’t see it after it’s constructed. Politicians who made it won’t be remembered. Unlike a flyover (which can be seen), it’s not a popular project,” she said. “It would be a very good landmark, though, for any politician that his river is no longer dirty.”
National program
In 2012, the National Sewerage and Septage Management Program intended to help local implementers build and operate effective wastewater treatment systems by 2020, included Cebu City among the highly urbanized cities where sewerage systems would be developed with the national government shouldering 40 percent of the cost.
“The 40 percent funding is mainly for sewerage, and the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) is pushing for the approval of the IRR to include septage. It was pending before the National Economic and Development Authority during the transition to the administration of President Duterte,” said Vasquez.
“The options for Cebu City are (1) hope that septage gets included in the IRR, or (2) go for the sewerage program, which is more expensive,” he said.
As for Mandaue City, it is now facilitating the creation of a feasibility study that may contribute to the proposed programs of both the MCWD and DPWH on sewerage and septage management, with the City expected to shoulder 60 percent of the cost, according to its City Planning and Development Office.
Relocation blues
But even on the best-laid plans, reality intrudes.
For instance, much still has to be done to ensure the proper disposal of human waste in Mandaue City’s 6.5-hectare relocation site in Barangay Paknaan.
The relocation there for informal settlers living close to the Butuanon River and Mahiga Creek was intended, among other things, to improve their sanitation practices in order to protect these waters.
Some 415 beneficiaries now live at the site near the mouth of the Butuanon River and the Cansaga Bay. But while each house is required to have a toilet and septic tank, Judith Maque, who moved there in 2015, is among those who did not build a toilet. She doesn’t have the budget for it.
A common comfort room is available for those who don’t have toilets, but the fee is P5 per use. So she said those without toilets just use an arinola (chamber pot), then “labay lang sa sapa. Mogawas ra sa dagat (throw the contents into the river, and they will just flow out to sea).”
The contents are also thrown across the development’s riprap, where they make their way to the Cansaga Bay.
Each house has a septic tank, though, the residents said. Some are made of plastic (costing P6,500), others of hollow blocks (costing P3,000).
The use of hollow block septic tanks was prohibited at first, but now it’s just been allowed because others just can’t afford it, they said.
Sound and fury
As early as 1964, Republic Act 3931 creating the National Water and Air Pollution Control Commission already prescribed fines and jail time for the disposal of pollutive matter into Philippine waters. But in the 52 years since, a plethora of other laws has been passed to punish the dumping of waste in rivers, to little avail.
Sound and fury, with not enough action, won’t alter the fate of rivers.
It can be argued that with Butuanon being a Class D river (or Class C under DAO 2016-08’s new classification) not suitable for drinking, bathing or fishing, no one should do any of these activities there anyway.
But riverside dwellers do still bathe, wash their clothes and catch fish there. Labels like Class D, if they were aware of it, wouldn’t deter those who had no other choice. The river is their life.
Bacayan dweller Opigal, who used to live some distance from the Butuanon, said when the owner of the lot she was living on decided to use it, she and others like her were forced to move their shanties downhill, close to the river’s edge, where they subsist on fishing from the river.
She said the only occupations they know are selling used plastic bottles, taking and selling sand from the river, disposing of their neighbors’ trash—also in the river, and raising pigs by the river—activities that also hurt the river they depend on.
Calling for the protection of the world’s “vulnerable and threatened” water resources, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon reminds everyone that “the poor continue to suffer first and most from pollution, water shortages and the lack of adequate sanitation.”
But in the end, everyone will suffer when polluted rivers reduce the amount of useable water for drinking, bathing, industry and agriculture.
(Last of three parts)