Waste Disposal Management to Avoid Pollution

[pioneer]

By Ric V. Obedencio
The Bohol Chronicle

Stakeholders of the multi-million dollar seaweeds industry mostly located in the northernwestern part of the province urged authorities concerned to strictly enforce the waste disposal management to avoid pollution in said area where most of the seaweed plantation and Double Barrier Coral Reef are located.

The participants, composed of private and business sectors, government agencies and seaweed growers, processors and traders, who participated in the workshop of the Bohol Agricultural Value Chain (AVC) study came up with this recommendation during the Development Plan Workshop held here recently.

The activity was sponsored by the Provincial Government of Bohol and the Local Government and Development Program (LGDP) funded by the Australian Aid and conducted by the Strategic Development Center-Asia.

It tackled four areas of concern that must be planned out and implemented within the three-year period (2008-2010). These were the a) investment plan; marketing plan; human resource development; policy/enabling environment under the seaweed sub-sector.

Under the 4th area (policy/environment), participants pushed for the stern enforcement of the environmental laws on waste disposal by the government agencies concerned.

The group found that seaweed growers are, not only facing the problem of mounting used synthetic or plastic straw for tying seaweed seedlings, but also the use of chemical for the seaweed harvest.

The Bureau of Fishery and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) confirmed the use of "sodium hydrochloride" (in powder form) that is being used to soak the newly harvested seaweeds prior to drying.

Regulation of the use of this chemical before drying the harvest has not been enforced, the participants said.

Some island seaweed growers expressed fears that these chemicals after their use might found their way to the deep sea in the form of effluents that are potential pollutants.

Earlier, barangay captain of Hingutanan island, off Bien-Unido town, said that remnants of plastic straw used as ropes are stockpiling up to almost a ton everyday during harvest season. Worse, he said, some of those solid wastes are dumped by growers themselves to the sea near the channel between Bohol and Leyte provinces because it cost them a lot to transport them to the mainland about an hour by motorized banca.

LGDP in tandem with the PGB said that the Bohol AVC is an important action in marshalling and promoting the optimum utilization of the resources in Bohol.

Aside from seaweeds, other sub-sectors include rice and hogs, which were also tackled during the workshop using the same four areas of concerns.

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