Plan to Convert Laguna Lake as Water Source Will Spell its Doom - Pamalakaya

Laguna Lake, the second biggest living lake in Southeast Asia, will be developed as a source of potable water for southern Metro Manila. The largest fisherfolk group warns that the plan will kill the lake – and the livelihood of thousands of fishermen and farmers whose income depends on it.

BY GERRY ALBERT CORPUZ
Bulatlat

The Rizal and Laguna chapters of the Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas or Pamalakaya (National Unity of Fisherfolk Movements in the Philippines), a national organization of fisherfolks in the country, last week condemned the planned conversion of Laguna Lake into a source of drinking water by the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System or MWSS. 

"This ambitious project on the privatization and conversion of Laguna Lake
will deliver the final death blow to the endangered lake", said Pamalakaya-Rizal chapter chairperson Romy Antazo in an interview with Bulatlat.

The lake is the second biggest living lake in Southeast Asia.

Pamalakaya said a total of 146 billion liters of water a year or 400 millions of liters of water a day will be sourced out from Laguna Lake if the water project pushes through.

75%-25% sharing

Pamalakaya said the real beneficiaries of the Laguna Lake water conversion project are not residents of south Metro Manila, which include Las Piñas, Muntinlupa, Parañaque and some Cavite towns, but the two biggest private water concessionaires in the country - Maynilad Water Service Inc. and Manila Water Co.

In the proposed lake water project, Maynilad will distribute 75 percent of the projected output or 300 million liters a day, while Manila Water will be in charge of 25 percent amounting to100 million liters a day.  This will amount to 9.5 billion liters a year and 36.5 billion liters a year, respectively, for the two concessionaires.

"Malacañang really loves the Lopezes and the Ayalas. The 75 percent-25 percent allocation between Maynilad and Manila Water is giving away the people's water resources to private water monopolies," Pamalakaya said.

The Arroyo administration had requested the government of The Netherlands to finance the MWSS Lake water project. Arroyo officials said the project is crucial to the stability of the supply of drinking water for Metro Manila. MWSS Administrator Orlando C. Andrade estimated the project cost at around P6 billion.

Encroachment of corporate interests

Pamalakaya said that the natural purpose of Laguna Lake is for fishing, navigation and irrigation of agricultural lands for fisherfolk, farmers and residents surrounding the lake. It is supposed to irrigate 102,456 hectares of prime agricultural lands in Rizal and Laguna provinces and some parts of south Metro Manila, the group also said.

However, the group complained that 2.04 billion cubic meters of the lake is used annually for industrial cooling. Seventy percent of the 2 billion cubic meters is being used by the power generating plants of the National Power Corporation (Napocor) like the Malaya Thermal Power Plant (TPP), Sucat TPP and Kalayaan TPP, while factories surrounding the lake are using the rest, Pamalakaya added.

The group said around 1,572 companies surrounding the lake use its waters for their cooling system. Added to this, big operators of commercial fishpens exploit 34,000 hectares of Laguna Lake for aquaculture production for export.

DPWH reclamation projects

Pamalakaya also denounced the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) for pursuing projects, which they said are too dangerous and would kill the ecological balance of the lake. Three of the biggest projects of DPWH are:

• The North Laguna Lakeshore Flood and Control Drainage System, which will involve the construction of dikes along the road from Taguig to Taytay (9.8km), Bicutan to Taguig (9.5 km), Sta.Rosa to Calamba (28 km), Bay to Sta.Cruz (32 km), Siniloan to Kalayaan (28 km) and the Tanay area ( 10 km).
   
• The Rizal International Airport, which will be undertaken by taipan Lucio Tan
  and the Tanyu Group of Companies. The new airport will involve the reclamation
  of 1,000 hectares from the lake.
   
• Laguna Bay Reclamation Project, which targets the reclamation of 3,000
  hectares of lake waters in Taguig, 5,000 hectares in Muntinlupa, 500
  hectares in Los Baños and another hundreds of hectares from Taytay to
  Binangonan, Rizal.

Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap said: "How can we save the lake from further destruction if the MWSS pushes through with another grand water conversion scheme that would put an end to Laguna Lake's existence as a living lake? The lake deserves a permanent respite from government and corporate attacks to enable it to regenerate".

Hicap concluded that the spate of government and corporate assaults on the lake will lead to the death of Laguna Lake. Bulatlat

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