Sec. Duque agrees to help district jail
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, a son of Pangasinan, has promised to help check the unabated pollution of the Dagupan shoreline originating from Dagupan District Jail.
Duque said he will allocate a budget from his fund for the construction of a bigger septic tank to finally stop the overcrowded jail from releasing its waste water to the sea.
Councilor Jesus Canto, chairman on health of the city council, said he met Duque recently and informed the latter about the pollution problem at the Tondaligan Park causing health risks and environmental threats.
This, he said happened even before the city council, on motion of Canto, passed a resolution requesting help from Duque.
Canto stressed that the construction of a septic tank for the district jail is a short-term solution to solve the problem and the identified long term plan, as proposed by Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez, is the jail’s relocation to another area, far from the Lingayen Gulf.
“We’ve got to institute the short-term plan first, otherwise our tourism at Tondaligan Park would be lost forever,” he said.
Canto said Duque’s intervention will also save the city’s bangus and protect Dagupan’s status as Bangus Capital of the World because if the sea is polluted, it will not be long before the rivers will also be polluted.
“That was why I was surprised when our city tourism officer said she is not worried about the water coming from the city jail’s overflowing septic that flows directly to the sea,” Canto said.
In a related development, the regional health director recently confirmed that the city’s shoreline is confirmed to be contaminated with e-coli. —LM
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