President Benigno Aquino III wants a comprehensive solution to the water hyacinth choking portions of the Rio Grande de Mindanao in Cotabato City, and the massive fishkill in Taal Lake in Batangas.
The President through Executive Secretary Paquitio N. Ochoa, Jr. has instructed Department of Science and Technology (DOST) Secretary Mario G. Montejo to sort through the twin menace and map out a long-term science based mitigation program. DOST is assembling a multi-disciplinary team that will carry out an intensive research effort to address such nature-induced mishaps.
Hundreds of tons of cultured tilapia and milkfish including fingerlings of both species were killed in the scenic lake since the start of rainy season in the last week of May. Authorities attribute the fishkill to sudden drop of temperature and overstocking that in turn reduced the oxygen level in the lake water.
Meanwhile, vast swathes of water hyacinth clogging portions of Rio Grande de Mindanao detoured the river water, flooding villages and even spilling into the busy districts of Cotabato city.
“In both incidents, we see the serious disruptions in the life and livelihood of our people. The immediate effects of the fishkill and water hyacinth obstruction in Mindanao’s second largest river are bad enough. Think about the marginal communities that depend on those income sources”, Montejo said.
Composition of the multi-disciplinary team will be announced soon. “It will be a DOST multidisciplinary team of experts so we can cover as much angles as possible”, DOST spokesman and Science and Technology Information Institute Director Raymund E. Liboro explained.
Montejo believes that DOST has the competence to manage the water hyacinth and fishkill issues because it can draw experts across its 22 agencies particularly from the Philippine Council for Aquatic and Marine Research and Development, Industrial Technology Development Institute, PCARRD, and network of regional and global S&T community.
Montejo plans to include experts from the Commission on Information and Communication Technology, and Ateneo de Manila University in the team to expand the scope of possible solution particularly in the fishkill incident.