DENR dares NIA to prove no coliform pollution in Pantabangan Dam

CABANATUAN CITY, April 13, 2011-A top official of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) yesterday dared the National Irrigation Administration (NIA)  executive to prove his claim that there was no coliform pollution in the Upper Pampanga River Integrated Irrigation Systems (UPRIIS) which supplies irrigation water to the Pantabangan Dam.

DENR regional technical director for forestry Sofio Quintana said that it’s up to Engineer Reynaldo Puno, UPRIIS operations manager, to disprove an earlier DENR findings of the presence of coliform at the Pantabangan Dam and its tributaries.

“If there is no coliform content then prove it. The burden of proof is with him,” he said in an interview.  

Earlier, Puno disputed the presence of the coliform bacteria in the UPRIIS area as claimed by Quintana, saying water at the dam is proven to be of good quality and is even used as potable water by local residents.

Quintana said that the bacteria, which are hazardous to people are found midstream and downstream of rivers from the watersheds of the UPRIIS, Dingalan in Aurora, Angat-Maasim and Angat-Ipo in Bulacan; Porac-Gumain in Pampanga; Pinulot in Bataan; Bulsa Moriones, Camiling and O’Donnel in Tarlac and Bucao, Cabaluan, Caulaman, Nayom and Sto. Tomas in Zambales. 

These river systems provide irrigation to thousands of hectares of farmlands in the region, led by Pantabangan Dam which – as the country’s biggest dam – irrigates 102,000 hectares in the region.

Quintana said local government officials should build community toilets and strengthen the enforcement of solid waste management laws.

Quintana, in a recent water conservation forum, said a test conducted last year on water quality of 15 rivers in Central Luzon showed various stages of fecal coliform contamination from human and animal wastes.

Puno said the reported presence of coliform at the system is far from accurate, saying they have quarterly samples of the water quality  of the Upper Pampanga in the towns of Pantabangan and even in Rizal to disprove it.

He said the report on coliform contamination cited by Quintana is  unfounded insofar as the UPRIIS is concerned. “Hindi totoo ‘yon (It’s not true). In fact, water quality at the UPRIIS is so good it is even used by residents in Pantabangan where the dam is located as potable water source,” he said.

But Puno said several water quality tests conducted by First Gen. Corp., the power generation arm of the Lopez group, at the Aya reservoir in Pantabangan showed zero contents of fecal coliform. He showed a copy of the report which states that generally, water quality is good enough and only need some treatment processes such as chlorination and sedimentation for potable water supply.

“So if the water is not safe as Quintana claims, local residents would have gone sick and farm animals would have perished because they drink water from the river. And even fish species would have died and there would have been a massive fish kill. But none of these exist,” he said, as he belied Quintana’s report.

But Quintana said the possibility of the presence of coliform cannot be discounted particularly when there are people inhabiting river banks and areas near river systems. “For as long as man inhabits river banks, then it’s highly possible that fecal coliform is present. I am not saying the contamination is severe or significant but the bacteria is there,” he said. 

In a related development, Manuel Collado, NIA regional irrigation manager for Central Luzon, said that so far, none of the farmers and irrigators’ associations have filed a complaint regarding the coliform pollution reportedly affecting the Angat-Maasim and Angat-Ipo rivers in the region. (Jason de Asis)