Water pollution and not blast fishing caused the recent case of fish kill off Las Piñas and Parañaque in Manila Bay where at least 30 tubs of dead fish were found along the coastline, the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources said Saturday.
“We need to find the source of the pollution. Like what we always say, we need to keep our waters clean to preserve marine life,” said BFAR Region 4A director Sammy Malvas said.
He said water quality tests showed poor levels of dissolved oxygen and elevated levels of ammonia and phosphates that could come from animal waste and domestic sewage. The ammonia in the water supply might have also come from agricultural, domestic and industrial wastes.
“These chemicals at high levels may cause detrimental effects which may result in fish kill,” the agency said.
Based on BFAR, estimates, the fish kill resulted in the loss of an estimated volume of one to two tons of fish.
Meanwhile, a legislator from Cavite, one of the provinces around Manila Bay, is seeking a legislative inquiry into the status of the cleanup of the bay that was ordered by President Rodrigo Duterte.
Dasmariñas City Rep. Elpidio Barzaga Jr, chairman of the House of Representatives’ Committee on Environment and Natural Resources, filed House Resolution No. 247 directing the natural resources panel to conduct an inquiry, in aid of legislation, on the status of Manila Bay rehabilitation and the cleanup of water tributaries leading to it,
“The continuous pollution of Manila Bay had impacted the health and livelihood of the coastal communities and produced deleterious effects on the marine life and resources in Manila Bay and contingent waters and tributaries leading to the said bay,” Barzaga said in his resolution.
Barzaga noted the continuing mandamus against issued by the Supreme Court on different government agencies to clean up, rehabilitate, and preserve Manila Bay, and to restore and maintain its waters to Class B Level that is fit for swimming, skin-diving and other forms of contact recreation.
The Department of the Interior and Local Governments was ordered by the high court to direct all local government units in Metro Manila, Rizal, Laguna, Cavite, Bulacan, Pampanga and Bataan to inspect all factories commercial establishments and private homes along the banks of the major river system in their respective areas of jurisdiction.
The Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System was ordered to maintain water treatment facilities while the Local Water Utilities Administration, through water districts, was tasked to set up sanitation facilities and ensure the efficient and safe collection treatment and disposal of sewage in the provinces of Laguna, Cavite, Bulacan, Pampanga and Bataan “at the earliest possible time.”