Pangasinan school turns green

DAGUPAN CITY, Philippines – An elementary school here is fast making a name for itself as a “green school” after its one-of-a-kind gardening style reaped awards recently.

Bonuan Boquig Elementary School garnered three national and regional awards in the search for sustainable and eco-friendly school for its innovative and novel ways to green its surroundings and help mitigate climate change.

Manuel Ferrer, school principal, told The STAR that concerted efforts by students, teachers, parent-teachers association (PTA) and barangay councils paid off anew after they were cited as grand slam winner in the regional search level.

The school also got three special awards in the national level for the same contest under the auspices of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources-Environmental Management Bureau in partnership with the Department of Education (DepEd).

Ferrer’s school hauled the Nestle Water Leadership Award, One Meralco Energy Leadership Award and Land Bank of the Philippines’ Greening Leadership Award.

“It was the first time that an elementary school in Region 1 garnered all the awards,” Ferrer proudly said. The recognition rites will be held before year-end.

Ferrer said the awarding ceremony for the national search was held earlier on Nov. 23 where Bonuan Boquig Elementary School got two special awards, namely, the Nestle Water Leadership Award and the One Meralco Energy Leadership Award plus third place overall among 16 regions.

Bonuan Boquig got combined cash prizes of P80,000 and three trophies for its three awards compared to the other winners in the national level.

“It is difficult to join even in one category only yet we made it not only once but twice plus a big bonus of being third overall champion nationwide,” Ferrer said.

Total cash prizes for the regional and national awards the school garnered for the search for sustainable and eco-friendly school amounted to P125,000.

Last week, Bonuan Boquig Elementary School bagged again the championship crown for the second time in a row in the “Gulayan sa Paaralan (Vegetable Gardening in School)” contest, besting 24 other schools in the city.

“Gulayan sa Paaralan” is in line with the “Pagsasarili Program” of Mayor Belen Fernandez which encourages children in schools to take part in attaining sustainability and food security in the community through school gardening using new technologies like aquaponics and hydroponics, a report from the City Information Office said.

The school also won a special award as the Best in Containerized Gardening, which brought its total winnings to P33,000.

Impressive pro-environment technologies

Ferrer said what impressed the evaluating team most were their water conservation facilities using a bio-sand filter. Since their barangay is flood-prone, Ferrer entered into an agreement with the Rotary Club of Mabalacat, Pampanga whose officers visited the school after learning about the success in their greening and gardening activities.

The rainwater harvesting facility has a machine that pumps floodwater that can eventually be used for restrooms or to water plants.

The Rotary Club provided containers to deposit the filtered floodwater.

Another unique project in the school is its photo-flow solar panel that could catch rainwater during rainy season by placing it in a tank.

The school has no pipe connection to the water district but only uses solar-powered jetmatic pump, Ferrer said.

Their aquaponics had been modified to solar-aqua-vermi-mushroom-ponics, he said.

Two of their latest technologies are the aeroponics where roots of plants are hung but with water sprinkled on them, and nature-ponics where materials used are environment-friendly like bamboo.

The school also has a vertical tower garden with built-in vermin composter, green house nursery, upo-ampalaya flyover, urban containerized garden rotonda, mineral water gallons garden, tetra pots and bottles garden, and a hanging plastic pots and rubber boots garden.