PUERTO GALERA—The Puerto Galera municipal government has directed the management of a wind farm project here to install silt booms in Varadero Bay as a preventive measure to protect it from possible widespread siltation during this rainy day season.
The directive of Puerto Galera Mayor Rockey Ilagan to the executives of the Philippine Hybrid Energy Systems Inc. (Phesi), owner of the US$100-million 48-megawatt wind farm project, came on the heels of a complaint from local fishermen.
In their written complaint to Ilagan and the Sangguniang Bayan, through Vice Mayor Marlon Lopez, the 86 fishermen said mud and sand running from the site’s ongoing construction of a 10-kilometer access road in upper Bgy. Tabinay are causing siltation of the nearby Varadero Bay which was a source of their livelihood.
They said “90 percent of residents of Sitio Hondura, Bgy. Tabinay, are fishermen who depend mostly on fishing in Varadero Bay for their livelihood.” Another reason they are complaining is “our children can no longer play in the beach front and swim in the bay because they are already one-foot thick in ‘banlik’ (silt), including mud and sand.”
In a field inspection, Phesi project engineer Arvin Vilan explained that since a year ago in 2015, the power company had tried to install three units of 20-meter silt booms in the affected area, “but we were stopped from doing it by the fishermen themselves.”
Vilan explained to Ilagan and the SB members that the installation of temporary silt booms in the affected area “will effectively contain the spread of silts in the adjacent areas of the bay.”
Silt ponds within the site of the road construction had been built. “We’re assuring affected residents, including fishermen, that the problem of siltation is temporary and happens only during rainy days. But, the company has been addressing it even before the complaint was raised,”the Phesi project engineer told municipal officials.
“The debris of mud only occupies 30 meters in diameter of Varadero and containable. We’ve to install the silt booms to avoid its spread although it happens only during rainy days,” Vilan explained.
Ilagan told the complaining fishermen, led by a Panying Candava, that their problem was “only temporary and being addressed by both the power company and the Puerto Galera municipal government.”
In allowing Phesi to install silt booms in Varadero Bay, Ilagan stressed the importance of protecting the environment and natural resources “since Puerto Galera is not only one of Southeast Asia’s major tourist destinations, but it is adjudged by a Paris, France, based environmental club as ‘one of the world’s most beautiful bays’.”
The Phesi is starting to construct Phase 1 of its wind farm power project consisting of 16-megawatts of electric power to be generated by eight wind towers.
Mark Anthony Labay, Phesi reforestation officer, said the company has employed 116 Mangyan tribesmen working either as laborers, watchmen, skilled workers and tree planters in the firm’s reforestation projects in the area.