THE city government finally acts on the daily pollution of the sea water fronting the Dagupan City Jail.

With its sewage water flowing to the Lingayen Gulf, the city jail is tagged as one of the biggest polluters of the sea.

City Health Officer Leonard Carbonnel confirmed it after he saw the wastes of the jail facility being flushed out directly to the beachfront.

The sore lack of facilities inside the jail to maintain a minimum sanitary condition was noted by Carbonnel who had to cover his nose while moving around the premises to attend to the evacuees who were given temporary shelter near   the compound.

Given what he saw and smelled, Carbonnel vowed to immediately issue a sanitary order to the city jail so the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, which manages it, can introduce corrective measures.

The sewage water from the city jail was exposed when shanties at the back of the facility were wiped out by high waves that battered the shoreline of Bonuan the night before..

“We are afraid to come out in the open for fear that jail authorities will come and harass us,” said one resident, who lives only few meters away from the facility.

Residents also said they had called the attention of the authorities but they got no response.

Councilor Jesus Canto, chair of the committee on health of the city council who visited the facility ahead of Carbonnel, hailed the impending action of the CHO on the pollution of the sea by the city jail.

“In fact, I will request Dr. Carbonnel to send a sanitary engineer to conduct an inspection of the city jail so the problem can be abated.

He said the presence of makeshift houses at the back of the city jail prevented city authorities to note the continuous flow of sewage water to the sea.

“How can we promote Tondaligan as a tourist spot if we have sewage water flowing to the sea,” Canto asked, enjoining jail authorities to undertake the necessary corrective measures.

“This is the reason why water samples taken from the area is high in ecoli bacteria every time it is subjected to water analysis,” he added.

In fact, the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources was the first to expose the sewage water of the jail about three years ago when it conducted water sampling and found it high in coli form bacteria.

Corrective measures were then undertaken but the problem recurred.—LM