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段.
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段.
Thus,
to address these concerns, strategic intervention was initiated through a
project: Sustainable Development of the Laguna de Ba段 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段 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:

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痴 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段, 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.
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Over
the last decades population expansion,
land conversion, urbanization, industrialization and intense fisheries have led
to massive changes, in the Laguna de Bay cathcment.
 |
Estimated
total BOD load entering Laguna de Ba'i is 74.300 tons per year
|
Domestic |
68.5% |
|
Industry |
19% |
|
Agriculture |
11.5% |
|
Forest/others |
1% |
|

The
SDLBE Project
|
Institutional
Development |
Decision Support System
Case Study |
Activities and Partners