Friday, May 4, 2007

DENR controls human settlement at Lake Danao


AROUND 30 families living around Lake Danao are tasked by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to monitor the lake to ensure good quality water supply in some Leyte towns.

DENR Regional Executive Director Alfredo S. Pascual also bared that human habitation around the 148-hectare lake is also being monitored. “The danger is pollution. It will degrade the quality of the water,” Pascual said on their move to prevent other people from settling in the area. The violin-shaped three-kilometer long lake supplies water to the eastern parts of the province like Tacloban, Tolosa, Tanauan, Palo, Dagami, Pastrana and Sta. Fe. The lake also serves as cooler of the geothermal plants in Tongonan, this city.

Human habitation around the lake started 20 years ago until their number reached to the present 30 families. Most of them do their laundry at the lake while some have established rice fields. The DENR has prohibited them against cultivating the soil and letting their grown children to build additional houses for their new families. “We don’t tolerate settlement but we manage it,” Pascual said adding: “We should all do our share to protect Lake Danao because that is the source of domestic water consumption.”

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