Dagupan threatened by fish kill, water pollution

By Liezle BasaInigo

DAGUPAN CITY, Pangasinan — The river’s marine products are threatened by a high level of phosphate and pollution that the city mayor is now addressing the possible wide destruction that may cause more death on fishes.

Earlier, Felicidad Salazar Visser called the attention of Barangay Tebeng Council regarding the death of different river species like tilapia, malaga (siganid), catfish and mudfish in her fishpond sometime November 2015.

In her meeting with barangay officials last January 6, Visser also had the water tested by the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR). It was found out that its salinity was low at 0.5 ppt. but the phosphate level was however high at 0.788.

The maximum safe level of phosphate in the water is 0.4, showing in that phosphate level (0.788), the water was polluted.

Visser also noted that dead fish were also seen floating in the river which mean that the problem was not in her fishpond alone.

Mayor Belen T. Fernandez met with the various barangay officials of Mangin and Tebeng in Dagupan as well as those from Ambonao and San Miguel, Calasiao, Pangasinan on Friday and discussed the reported high phosphate level of the Bayaoas/Parongking River.