River systems of the Philippines are some of most neglected ecosystems of the country, and only very few of them have been studied. The majority are in various stages of degradation. Many of them are drying up mainly because of the denudation of the forested areas serving as source of their water supplies.
In many parts of the country, people are not aware of the importance of rivers in serving to connect the land and the sea. This connection makes possible the operation of nutrient cycles involving oceans and terrestrial ecosystems and the movement of animal and plant species between land and sea that maintain the natural productivity of natural habitats. Human populations depend so much on this natural productivity.
Worse still, the lack of the awareness of the importance of rivers to human welfare has resulted in the severe pollution of river systems. People throw all kinds of materials into rivers including domestic und industrial wastes, trash, garbage, etc. thinking that they are getting rid of all these.
Little do they know that natural processes cause toxic chemicals to enter the human food chains, thus coming back to them. A good example is mercury that becomes part of fish eaten by people in areas where mining activities have polluted aquatic ecosystems.
The Commission on Higher Education is aware of these problems. Two years ago, it began to support a research program on river systems in the Central and Western Visayas regions to be conducted by colleges and universities in these regions.
The first phase of this program involved the faculty members and researchers of nine colleges and universities on Negros and Panay, who studied two river systems, the Bago River in Negros Occidental and the Jalaur River in Iloilo. (More studies are being conducted on other rivers in the two regions.)
These studies will be reported in “The Symposium on the Jalaur and Bago River Studies, Western Visayas” to be held at the HTM Center of La Consolacion College Bacolod City on Feb. 22-23, 2011.
There are 15 presentations in the Bacolod City symposium. The papers will deal with the biodiversity, including fisheries; hydrology and water quality of these two rivers; and socio-economics of the human communities.
The research exercise is expected to improve the research capabilities of the nine academic institutions, to contribute to the knowledge on Philippine biodiversity (including new species of fish), to highlight the economic significance of these two river systems (including tourism potentials, health hazards, natural productivity), to emphasize the need for healthy river systems and the need for river clean-ups), and to point out policies and action programs for LGUs to undertake to achieve a sustainable environment.