Sustainable Development of the Laguna de Ba'i Region (SDLBE)

 

 

In view of the competing and conflicting uses, the Laguna Lake Development Authority is more than ever faced with a need for comprehensive Water Resources Management and Development of Laguna de Ba’i.

The lack of understanding of the system functioning, the water resources demand and supply, and the inadequacy of information needed to have a coherent understanding of water resources management and development threaten not only the sustainability of the lake uses, but also the ecological functioning within the Lagna de Ba’i.

 

Thus, to address these concerns, strategic intervention was initiated through a project: Sustainable Development of the Laguna de Ba’i Environment (SDLBE).  The project, with a term of two years, was funded by the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

The objective of the project was to ensure future sustainable development of Laguna de Ba’i resources, based upon a sound knowledge of the functioning of the system, its users and the institutional setting (i.e. supporting Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM).  The project was therefore especially directed at: 

• capacity building

• developing practical and realistic solutions for current problems and issues regarding the lake and focusing on drinking water supply, need for dredging and infrastructure works..

With a total surface area of approximately 900 km² Laguna de Bay is one of the largest inland bodies of water in Southeast Asia.  Some 100 streams drain into the lake out of six different provinces and a total of more than 50 municipalities.  The total area of the watershed is around 3820 km² and has been significantly modified by land use (deforestation, quary activities, urban expansion and the  operation of the Mangahan  floodway).   As  a  result  of  these  changes  some 4  MT  of  suspended  solids  enter  the  Lake,  leading  to an average net accretion of 0.5 cm/yr. At present the average depth of the Lake is 2.5 m.   The Lake’s only outlet controls the flow to the Pasig River that discharges into Manila Bay.  Over the last decades population expansion, land conversion, urbanization, industrialization, and intense fisheries have led to massive changes in the Laguna de Bay catchment.   Nowadays  households  contribute  for  almost  70%  to  the total BOD₅ load into the Laguna de Ba’i, illegal garbage dumping seems common practice and high loads of bacteria, nutrients  and  toxics  enter the water system untreated. Examples of other changes are:  rapid siltation in the Lake, the occurrence of eutrophication phenomena and bacterial pollution, significant loss of biodiversity, flooding problems and all sorts of secondary impacts on public health, standard of living, loss of recreational attractivity, etc.

 

 

< View Laguna de Bay's Salinity Intrusion: 500 kilobytes | 250 kilobytes >

 

Over the last decades population expansion,
land conversion, urbanization, industrialization and intense fisheries have led to massive changes, in the Laguna de Bay cathcment.

 

 

 

 

The SDLBE Project | Institutional Development | Decision Support System

Case Study | Activities and Partners