On April 7, 2017, some members of our Foundation went to Barangay Looc to have a meeting with the stakeholders. There were about 40 people from parishioners, fisherfolk, youth, the local government and other concerned people.

The people who gathered at the basement of the church listened as members of our group presented some options including the Floating Green Filters, Sachet Recovery Project, Biogas and the Use of Trash for Power.  Then representatives of the stakeholders stood up one by one and made comments. In short, they were appreciative of the options being presented but they said these probably would not work. 

Why? It ends up that tge problem is not a simple one.  The village captain said that they've been waiting for this type of initiative. The people of Looc actually conduct river clean-up regularly hoping that the odor would go away. But now they realize that the river is actually the catchment for trash that is coming from upstream sources of 3 provinces. They said that strong rains will just wash out the proposed green filter system. 

It was agreed that we should bring up the problem to a regional development council that covers the 3 provinces. This way clean-up can start at the source of the problem. 

This is a common water pollution problem where water downstream is affected by water flowing from upstream. We should protect our rivers, lakes, streams and other bodies of water because the water quality of one body affects the others.