CORY DEFENDS LAKE SCHEME
The Manila Chronicle, May 21, 1990

PRESIDENT Aquino yesterday defended a controversial government plan to tap Laguna Lake as a source of drinking water for Metro Manila, hinting the plan is necessary to relieve the city of water shortage.

Speaking in her weekly broadcast program "Magtanong sa Pangulo," Mrs. Aquino said she had ordered a "thorough study" of the plan to build a water treatment facility near the lake which can pump out 900,000 cubic meters of water daily.

The President said fears have been expressed about the project and that some people have complained about the "high concentration" of heavy metals and chemicals dumped on the lake by factories.

She added that fishermen in the lakeside towns of Rizal and Laguna have also expressed concern that the project might dry up their source of livelihood, while others have questioned its detrimental effects on the marine life.

Allaying fears on pollution, Mrs. Aquino said an international study on the lake that was finished last December confirmed that the levels of toxic and hazardous chemicals in the lake "are still significant."

"The recent tests of water samples conducted by the Philippine Institute of Pure and Applied Chemistry did not detect heavy metals as well," she said, adding that marine life is by no means threatened by the project.

Saying that studies favor the multiple use of the lake, the President said that pumping out .9 million cubic meters of water per day from the lake would have "an insignificant impact" on the quantity of lake water.

She said that the project (even at its maximum) would decrease the lake level by only one millimeter a day or a total of 12 centiments for the four dry months of January to April. "Even during the driest months, the net natural inflow of water into the lake is five times greater than the proposed amount that will be pumped out," she said.

Lito Zulueta