LAGUNA DE BA-I
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LAGUNA DE BAY
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Laguna de Bay is really called Bah-ee, among Tagalogs this lake has been the lifeblood and it is almost dead.
The lake was full of life, but the oxygen levels are getting low, the amount of commercial fish farms and the land-fill project of the swamplands in Manila is slowly doing a job on it, the level of the lake seems to be lower today, than when I was younger.
Pollution along the rivers that feeds it continues to pump dirty water, silt and muck contributing greatly to its death. Sometimes by looking at the lake bed will give you a clue on its condition, it too has to breathe.
Fish farming-
Too much fish will deplete the amount of oxygen, waste materials from fresh water shrimps and prawns clouds the waters.
Land Fills in Manila-
What has this to do with the lake?
The lake breathes and gets fresh water from Manila Bay through the rivers that ends there, the swamplands acts as a filter to clean the waters coming out into Manila Bay, and does the same going in. I would not be surprised if a record was found somehow on how clear the waters of the lake must have been a long, long time ago.
We all know what pollution does, and without the swamp lands that used to be all of Manila, there is nothing to clean the waters.
Swamplands invites other life, not just vegetation, birds and animals graze and feed on it, a whole ecosystem is in there, including human beings.
There can be a solution, and that is to rebuild the swamps, introduce the former vegetation that thrives there, like indigo, reeds, water chestnuts and lilies. The birds will return on their own, the frogs, and insects, of course mosquitoes, this can be minimized with other wildlife that feeds on them.
Don't be surprised on how well the resurrection will be, don't forget to dredge the rivers and remove all of the human rejects, waste and debris from it.
There is a solution after all.