Detergents may pollute our sources of potable water, say experts

Gasoline-based surface-active agents (surfactants) found in laundry detergents could endanger the quality of the country's sources of water, exposing the public to drinking traces of the non-biodegradable, cancer-causing synthetic chemicals.

This was revealed last Friday during a weekly forum organized by former Nueva Ecija Rep. Renato Diaz which tackled the impending global water crisis with officials of the Maynilad Waster Services, Inc., Lyonnaise de Eaux (LDE), Concerned Citizens Against Pollution (COCAP), Earth Savers Movement and a local soap producer using "environmentally-correct" and indigenous oils and herbs.

"The volume of supply is one area that could probably be solved in due time, but the problem on quality because of pollution is one aspect that caused the proliferation of bottled water, far more expensive than a liter of gasoline," Diaz pointed out to guests of the forum, which he moderates with TV personality Cristina Peczon.

Former Local Government Secretary Rafael Alunan III, Maynilad president, said his company will be investing P$50 million over the next two years for sanitation equipment and improvement of its wastewaster treatment plant in Dagat-Dagatan in Navotas.

Then working as a consultant for a locator at the Subic Bay free port, LDE director Mary Mai Flor said detergents really pose a big problem.

"As a matter of fact, we only allow a specific brand of detergent in our facility in Subic - I think it's the Tide brand, because of pollution problems," Flor noted.

Johnny Cua, president of Procter & Gable and former president of the Soap and Detergent Association of the Philippines, had told a Senate panel that his company's Tide powder is using a surfactant made up of 100 percent coconut fatty alcohol sulfate (CFAS). It's time for manufacturers to get serious about the environment and our association has voluntarily suspended the use of (gasoline-based) hard alkyl benzene (HAB)," he added.

COCAP president Oscar Escobar said government and MWSS' concessionaires should get to the bottom of the problem and come up with a holistic strategy to address both volume and quality problems. "We could overlook the aspect of detergent pollution in our effort to solve problems of volume," he stressed.