DENR urged to protect water sources

Water patrol activists of an international environment group trooped to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in Quezon City yesterday to deliver a “blue baby” doll to DENR Secretary Lito Atienza and called on him to ensure the protection of clean water sources in the country.

“We demand that the government uphold the right of every person, every Filipino to clean water,” Greenpeace said.

The group said the “blue baby syndrome” or methemoglobinemia is a fatal disease in infants who ingest water contaminated with nitrates, associated with the excessive use of fertilizer. Aside from this fatal illness, nitrates-laden water also poses other serious health hazards, including certain types of cancer.

According to Greenpeace, the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1992 pegged the number of infant deaths per year from exposure to contaminated water at 500,000 in Southeast Asia.

Beau Baconguis of Greenpeace Southeast Asia said that to be able to effectively address the problem on water pollution, the government must invest more resources and efforts in pollution prevention and clean production.

Daniel Ocampo, also of Greenpeace, said the DENR must work with the Department of Agriculture (DA) in order to implement stronger measures to protect groundwater from pollution from agricultural chemicals. He also said that as a first important step, the DENR and DA should work on the reduction of pesticide and chemical fertilizer inputs used in farming.

In the past months, Greenpeace has presented studies that show the presence of poisonous heavy metal contaminants in Marilao River in Bulacan, and carcinogenic volatile organic chemicals (VOCs) in groundwater used by households around the Cavite Export Processing Zone, a busy electronics manufacturing hub in Luzon.

Greenpeace’s latest study showed “worrisome” levels of nitrate contamination of drinking water sources in certain agricultural areas in Benguet and Bulacan, “well above the safety limits” set by the WHO, which is 50 milligrams of nitrates per liter of drinking water.   – Katherine Adraneda