Dgte LGU to construct biological wastewater treatment system

Rachelle M. Nessia

The city government of Dumaguete under the Local Initiative for Wastewater (LINAW) treatment is pushing for the construction of a septage wastewater treatment system to treat wastewater coming from households, hospitals, marketplace and business establishments here.

This move came after results of studies by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and the Silliman University Marine Laboratory have shown that coastal waters in Dumaguete City belong to the lowest classes of water quality.

This was disclosed by Vice Mayor William Ablong, one of the guest speakers during yesterday’s Kapihan sa PIA forum conducted by the Philippine Information Agency (PIA).

Citing the results of a study conducted by SU Marine Laboratory in 1997, Ablong said coastal waters along Barangays Bantayan to Calindagan are catalogued as class SC for fecal coliform standard and class SD for total coliform standard.

Propagation and harvesting of shells and fish products, swimming and bathing in these areas are not advised, said Ablong.

Based on a water quality monitoring report of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), coastal waters in the city has been identified as recreational water class or areas regularly used by the public for bathing, skin diving, swimming, etc. and fishery water class or spawning areas of bangus (milkfish) and similar species.

The same report stated that the coastal water in Rizal Boulevard have already shown initial stages of deterioration, registering a high E-coli count.

“If you drink water from the Boulevard, for sure you will be affected by water-borne diseases,” said Engr. Rogelio Clamonte, chief of the city’s environment and natural resources office (ENRO) and one of the guest panelists in the said forum.

ENRO has been regularly collecting wastewater samples in the city’s coastal waters for analysis in the SU Chemistry Lab.

“So kinanglan likayan ang pagkaligo aron dili maka-inom ug tubig sa dagat diha sa boulevard,” he added.

Records from the City Health Office show a high number of cases of water-borne diseases reported in 2003, with 200 acute gastroenteritis and 111 acute diarrhea cases, and other diseases such as typhoid fever, amoebiases and hepatitis.
Ablong said the local statistics confirm the findings of World Bank that 31 percent of the diseases in the country are water-related “because 58% of our drinking water are contaminated with coliform bacteria.”

According to the vice mayor, it was noted that even after the transfer of the city slaughterhouse to a non-coastal barangay in Bajumpanda, the E-coli count remained high.

In a wastewater monitoring conducted on the 13 water outfalls along Rizal Boulevard, it was learned that the biological oxygen demand (BOD) content is beyond the tolerable limit of 31 milligrams per liter. “BOD is the amount of oxygen needed by the bacteria to biodegrade the organic matter,” Ablong explains.

But the city’s organic load discharge into the sea is quite high, with figures reaching roughly thousands of milligrams per second, according to Ablong.

Based on 2000 statistics, Dumaguete City has 21,582 households and in 2003, there are around 4,186 business establishments, 334 restaurants, 3 hospitals, 7 tertiary schools and 17 elementary and high schools. All of these are sources of the city’s wastewater, Ablong said.

In 2002, there are 13,012 total septic tanks in the city. “As long as we have septic tanks, we have E-coli,” he added.

He warned that the higher the BOD content is, the higher also is the pollution or contamination of water. “There’s really a need to treat wastewater before we throw them away to coastal waters,” he said.

In view of this, City Mayor Agustin Perdices signed a memorandum of agreement with the Local Initiative Water Treatment (LINAW) project for the construction, operation and maintenance of proposed wastewater treatment facilities.

Ablong reported that last year, the 3.7-hectare dry riverbed in Camanjac has already been declared as biological wastewater treatment site for domestic waste.

“For our market waste, we will have an on-site wastewater treatment facility, a multi-chamber wastewater treatment facility, and also for hospitals. For commercial establishment, we are planning to put one up in the Boulevard area,” he said.

City Planning and Development Officer Engr. Josephine Antonio in the same forum admits that the city’s proposed septage treatment plant is not the only solution to the problem facing the city, “but it is the best so far, and simplest we can do and one that the city can afford and is doable.”

She said the plant will use wastewater stabilization ponds and will be located some distance from Okoy river.

Already an old technology, water stabilization ponds are being used in more than 40 countries, notably Israel which does not have a lot of water and is the pioneer in the use of this technology.
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