ILOILO CITY—The city government here wants to save the dying Iloilo River by clearing it of pollutants coming from erring establishments, silt brought down from uplands, and other obstructions to water flow such as fish pens, nets and cages. Residents, however, say if their fish pens, nets and cages are demolished, they may very likely be the ones who will starve.
The Iloilo River may be polluted, say the small fishers, but the “arm of the sea” that carves out portions of the city from the mainland still gives life to residents living along it by giving them fish to catch and crabs to harvest. And now that the city government wants what it calls “obstructions” to be taken away, the residents are protesting.
Ester Cristales said if their source of livelihood is taken away, she and other poor people living along the river’s bank will have no other means to survive. She is old, she said, and it is not easy to find a job, especially at her age.
“Our parents and our parents’ parents have lived by fishing in this river. We grew up and had our own families by growing fish and crabs here. What will happen to us if our cages for growing crabs and nets for growing fish are torn down and taken away? What will we do for a living?”
Anna Siosan said it is not their structures that cause siltation and contribute to the clogging up of the river that causes flooding. She argued that they actually help in ridding the river of garbage because they take out the waste and other discharges caught by their pens or nets.
The new bridges, fishponds, private property that have encroached into the river, and lush mangroves along the riverbank are the ones that should be blamed, said other residents of barangay Sooc, Arevalo district and barangay South San Jose, Molo district, who attended separate discussions with a team from the City Agriculture Office.
Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog has ordered the City Agriculture Office to weed out illegal structures by Sept. 15 in compliance with an ordinance that prohibits the putting up of any structure in the river including fish pens, cages, nets and the like that would distract the water flow.
The structures’ removal is aimed primarily to mitigate disaster, the city government claims. Many city areas are soaked in floodwater during heavy rains and typhoons because the water cannot get through the clogged-up sewer system, canals and creeks that all lead to the Iloilo River. The Iloilo River Development Council said it is one of the measures needed to save the river from dying. Others would be the strict monitoring of effluence coming from establishments that should have treated the wastewater before releasing it to the river, and dredging the whole stretch as to take away too much silt.
Mabilog said the city will give each family P3,000 to make them start an alternative livelihood. But the residents say this is too small as they earn P6,000 to P10,000 a month from the river, which stretches from Arevalo district in the south to the mouth of Iloilo Strait in the north.
Some residents said they might compromise with the city as long as they are given an alternative sustainable livelihood. Others want to seek legal remedy by questioning the ordinance. Still some want to stay, but want to redesign their gear to make them more environmentally sound.
In Photo: His two kids wait for the fisher to sell his day’s catch of crabs. (Pedro Luz)
