Cabrera expects high coliform contamination in city’s seas

AFTER Mactan, the Environment Management Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in Central Visayas (EMB–DENR) is expected to soon release the results of their tests on the level of contamination in the seawaters of Cebu City.

But Ma. Nida Cabrera, head of the Cebu City Environment and Natural Resources Office (Cenro), said that their office, which requested for the testing, is anticipating high-level of coliform and other pollutants in the city’s seawaters.

Cabrera cited the tons of garbage they collected during clean-up drives from the city’s coastal areas.

“Especially in the areas near the SRP (South Road Properties). We have a team deployed to collect the garbage floating on the sea. But the morning after cleaning up, garbage still manages to end up there,” said Cabrera.

Once the results will be furnished to their office by the EMB–7, Cabrera said that they will formulate measures to address the problem including intensifying their information drives in the barangays.

“We have to mobilize our barangays, especially the coastal ones, so that they can help in keeping our water bodies clean,” Cabrera said.

Cabrera revealed that barangay support is crucial in monitoring coastal households with no proper septage management.

“Since the DENR intensified their operations on monitoring the water bodies after the closure of Boracay, more commercial establishments along the coast have been complying on our waste septage ordinance. Right now, our problem is the households,” she explained.

There are at least 14 coastal barangays in Cebu City including Mabolo, Tejero, Carreta, Tinago, San Roque, Ermita, Suba, Pasil, Sawang Calero, Duljo-Fatima, Mambaling, Basak San Nicolas, Kinasang-an, Cogon-Pardo, and Inayawan, accounting to 51, 651 households.