ILOILO CITY — The city government here is looking at collaborating with other local government units (LGUs) within the Tigum-Aganan Watershed in pushing for the successful cleanup of the Jaro River.
Engineer Noel Hechanova, head of the city environment and natural resource office (CENRO) of Iloilo City, said Jaro River is located downstream or at the mouth of the watershed. Iloilo City is not the only one generating solid wastes but some of the garbage are from the upstream that is covered by other LGUs.
“The Jaro River is part of the bigger river system, the Tigum-Aganan Watershed, with around 15 LGUs,” he said Monday.
He added that he has coordinated with Atty. Arturo Cangrejo, head of the Iloilo Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office (PENRO), so that they could collaborate and come up with a plan on how to address the problem on solid waste.
The Jaro River traverses 23 barangays of this city, stretching to more or less seven to eight kilometers.
“Where the confluence (of Tigum and Aganan River) is the start of the Jaro River,” he said. The intersection starts at Barangay Pagsanga-an in Pavia, Iloilo.
Hechanova said that initially, they will not touch other issues such as water pollution. Instead, they will focus first on solid waste cleanup.
He revealed that they performed a week of cleanup in areas near the Panay Energy Development Corporation (PEDC) in La Paz district and they generated some five trucks, which is probably equivalent to three to five tons of solid wastes.
He added that once their plans with other LGUs will harmonize, then that’s the time that they start with the cleanup. He revealed though, that some initiatives were already undertaken by the city such as putting up of a boom along the river to catch the garbage being thrown into the river.
They are just to find an area that is accessible to garbage truck, he said.
In the meantime, he said that the plan is just to identify pilot barangays and not the 23 barangays along the river.
He expressed hope that the initiatives at the Jaro River can take off in the next five years such as what happened with the efforts for the Iloilo River.
Hechanova said more than PHP2 billion worth of projects have been invested in Iloilo City that were triggered by the cleanup initiatives at the Iloilo River.
“Everyone was inspired with what we started. So I said maybe it’s high time that we start with the Jaro River cleanup because it has been neglected for many years,” he said.
He also looked forward to the creation of a council that will oversee the cleanup initiatives similar to that of the Iloilo River. (Perla Lena/PNA)
