Water quality awareness and its impacts on health and livelihood in urban and rural communities that surrounds laguna lake, philippines

GILIAN BARADAS BAET WATER QUALITY AWARENESS AND ITS IMPACT ON HEALTH AND LIVELIHOOD IN URBAN AND RURAL COMMUNITIES THAT SURROUND LAGUNA LAKE, PHILIPPINES BACHELOR’S THESIS Study Mode

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY

UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY

MA GILIAN BARADAS BAET

WATER QUALITY AWARENESS AND ITS IMPACT ON HEALTH AND LIVELIHOOD IN URBAN AND RURAL COMMUNITIES THAT SURROUND

LAGUNA LAKE, PHILIPPINES

BACHELOR’S THESIS

Study Mode: Full-time Major : Environmental Science and Management Faculty : Advanced Education Program Office Batch : K46-NO2

Thai Nguyen, October 2019

DOCUMENTATION PAGE WITH ABSTRACT

Thai Nguyen University of Agriculture and Forestry

Degree Program Bachelor of Environmental Science and Management

Student Name Ma Gilian B Baet

Student ID DTN1454290108

Thesis Title

Water Quality Awareness and its Impacts on Health and Livelihood in Urban and Rural Communities that surrounds Laguna Lake, Philippines

Supervisor (s) Ms Ly Thi Thuy Duong (Vietnam);

Dr Damasa B Magcale-Macandog (Philippines) Supervisor’s

Signature

Abstract:

Water is one of the basic necessities of a person’s life, without it, one cannot survive Nowadays, water bodies are getting polluted because of the toxic pollutants coming from factories and improper waste disposal and have negative impacts on the health and even the livelihood especially of the fishermen and farmers This research will tackle the awareness of the communities in urban (Cabuyao, Sta Rosa and San Pedro) and rural areas (Victoria, Pila and Pagsanjan) surrounding Laguna lake about the water quality caused by pollution This study will further investigate the awareness of people about the impacts of lake water quality on their health and the government programs related to the management of the lake Household survey was done on randomly sampled households Survey questionnaires were developed to gather all the data needed for this study Results were analyzed and it was concluded that people from the urban cities are more aware of water pollution than the people from rural municipalities This is because urban cities have factories and are more crowded that’s why people from the urban are experiencing more of the problems related to pollution than rural municipalities Local government units are conducting clean up drives for the lake

and collecting wastes from the households Proper waste disposal and proper drainage system to avoid floods as it may be clogged by the garbage that have been thrown or carried by the water that came from the streets and to filter harmful chemicals that may affect the quality of the water to avoid sickness

Keywords Water, pollution, health, livelihood, Laguna Lake, water

quality, urban, rural

Number of pages 56 pages

Date of

Submission September 25, 2019

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This research will not be made possible without the people who helped the

researcher I would like to express my sincere gratitude, first, to God for the

guidance and blessings that HE gave for completing this research and the course

of Environmental Science and Management

Second, my advisers from the Philippines, Professor Damasa B

Magcale-Macandog of the Institute of Biological Sciences, University of the Philippines

Los Baños College, Laguna, Philippines and from Vietnam, Ms Ly Thi Thuy

Duong, for the continuous support for completing my research, for their patience,

passion and motivation they have given me Their guidance helped me in various

ways so that I can learn and complete my degree I could not imagine without

them as my advisors

Besides my advisors, my family and relatives for giving me motivation to

complete this writing Their never-ending support will be always my motivation

to go forward And to my little brother, Roman Paulo Baet, for being my

enumerator in time of interviewing various people in urban cities, even though

it’s his summer break but he is willing to help me To Mommy Seng and Daddy

German, thank you for the patience that you’ve given me to finish this course

and research To my aunts, Faustina Baradas, Istee Baradas-Racelis and Izhay

Baradas, thank you for your never-ending support to keep me motivated

throughout my journey To my siblings, Camille Baet and Roman Baet, thank

you for being in my side whenever I got problems and for the advices that you’ve

given me

To my friends here in Vietnam, thank you very much for all the fun and

happy moments especially my roommates in 205 and neighbor in 206 for having

endless fun

To my professors in Environmental Science and Management, thank you

for teaching us all the lessons even though you are not native English speakers

Thank you for making the effort for us to have the knowledge about

Environmental Science and having fun filled field trips with all our classmates

from both sections K46-A and K46-B

To my Alma Matter, St Therese School Arts and Sciences but now called

St Therese College of Arts and Sciences Inc., for giving me this opportunity to

travel and study here in Vietnam It is one of the blessings I will always treasure

since it opened my mind about other culture Having friends from other countries

and learning their culture is one of the best experiences I gained

To the Mayor of Cabuyao, Sta Rosa, San Pedro, Pila, Victoria and

Pagsanjan, I’m very thankful for letting me survey the communities and to all

your staff that have a very kind attitude For the barangay captains and staff,

thank you for guiding me and for the security to finish the survey and gather all

the information needed to complete this thesis And for the key informants and

respondents, I’m so thankful for the honesty, sincerity and hospitality you’ve

shown me while I’m doing my survey

Thanks to all of you, I have now finished my research about Water

Quality Awareness and its Impacts on Health and Livelihood in Urban and Rural

Communities that surrounds Laguna Lake, Philippines

Thank you and God bless

TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Figures …….……… i

List of Table (if neccessary) … …….……… ii

List of Abbreviation ……… iv

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ……… 1

1.1 Research Rationale ……… 1

1.2 Research’s Objective ……… 3

1.3 Research Questions and Hypothesis ……….… 4

1.3.1 Research Questions ……… 4

1.3.2 Hypothesis ……… 4

1.4 Scope and Limitation ……… 5

1.4.1 Scope ……… 5

1.4.2 Limitation ……… 6

1.5 Definition ……… 6

CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW ……… 8

CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY ……… … 11

3.1 Materials ……… 11

3.2 Methods ……… 11

3.2.1 Sample Size ……… 11

3.2.2 Research Design ……… 13

3.2.3 Data Gathering Process ……… 13

CHAPTER IV: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ……… 14

4.1 General Information ……… 14

4.1.1 Age Frequency ……… 14

4.1.2 Gender Distribution ……… 14

4.1.3 Marital Status ……… 15

4.1.4 Educational Attainment ………16

4.1.5 Employment Status ……… 17

4.2 Knowledge and Awareness of the Community about water pollution in Laguna Lake and its effects on their health and livelihood …… 17 4.2.1 Perspective on their water quality of Laguna Lake

and how they know it ……… 17

4.2.2 Laguna Lake is experiencing environmental problems …… 19

4.2.3 Reasons why Laguna Lake is experiencing environmental problems ……… 19

4.3 Health and Livelihood ……… 21

4.3.1 Water quality affects people health and livelihood …… 21

4.3.2 Conservation of water ……… 22

4.3.3 Sewage connection ……… 22

4.3.4 Fish Taste & Reason ……… 23

4.3.5 Water Related Diseases Experience ……… 24

4.3.6 Lake Swimming and Sickness ……… 25

4.4 Seminar, Solutions and Contribution ……… 27

4.4.1 Pollution Contribution ………27

4.4.2 Lessening Pollution ……… 28

4.4.3 Seminar about mitigation and its content ……… … 30

4.4.4 Seminar about water conservation and its content … 32

4.4.5 Attending Seminars ……… 33

4.4.6 Donation for Laguna Lake ……… 34

CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION ……… 36

5.1 Conclusion ……… 36

5.2 Recommendation ……… 37

REFERENCES ……… 39

APPENDIX ……… 44

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1 Map of Laguna (Laguna De Bay: Environment Literacy) …… 3

Figure 2 Age Frequency from Rural and Urban areas ……… 14

Figure 4 Marital Status of both Urban and Rural ……… 16

Figure 5 Educational Attainment Graph Comparison

of Urban and Rural areas ……… 16

Figure 6 Employment Status of Rural and Urban in Graph form … 17

Figure 7 Opinion about water quality in Laguna Lake ……… 18

Figure 8 Respondents answer on where they got the idea of water quality in

Laguna Lake ……… 18

Figure 9 Perspective of the respondents on Laguna Lake experiencing

Figure 10 Graph of Rural and Urban areas on the community is the reason why

the lake is polluted ……… 20

Figure 11 Canal in Cabuyao City, Philippines ……… 20

Figure 12 Water quality affects health and livelihood ……… 21

Figure 13 Conserving of water in Rural and Urban Areas ……… 22

Figure 14 Sewage connection of Urban and Rural areas ……… 23

Figure 15 Fish have different taste ……… 24

Figure 16 Reason why the taste of the fish is different ……… 24

Figure 17 Sickness experienced for the last 5 years until now ……… 25

Figure 19 contributing pollution ………28

Figure 20 Ways of Contributing Pollution ……… 28

Figure 21 Ways to lessen pollution ……… 30

Figure 22 Seminar about Mitigation of Water Pollution ……… 31

Figure 23 Content of Mitigation of Water Pollution Seminar ……… 31

Figure 24 Seminar about water conservation ……… 32

Figure 25 Contents of Water Conservation Seminar ……….… 33

Figure 26 Attending Seminar ……….… 34

Figure 27 Donation for Laguna Lake ……… 35

LIST OF ABBREVIATION

CALABARZON Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon

LIST OF TABLE

Table 1 Sickness caught by swimming at the lake

PART I INTRODUCTION 1.1 Research Rationale

Water is the most important source required by humans, animals and other

living organisms to survive According to USGS (2010), the Earth’s surface is

composed of 70% water and 30% land The distribution of water in the world is

uneven with 97% of water found in the ocean and the remaining 3% is found in

the fresh bodies of water inland Among the freshwater bodies, 69% is found in

glaciers or ice caps, 30% is found underground and 1% is in the lakes, swamps

and rivers As human population increases, the demand for the various natural

resources, including water, will increase With the increase of human population

and economic development, the quality of water is being affected and it became

one of the problems that need immediate action If unattended, the water quality

will get worst and the future supply of clean water will be limited

Aside from demand for natural resources, human activities are the main

reasons why the Earth is experiencing rapid climate change in the past 100 years

Foremost among these human activities is urbanization As the places got more

urbanized the needs for various resources are increasing since the human

population are doubling its size People need resources like water, food, fiber,

shelter and medicine in order to survive

Urbanization involves the establishment of settlement, infrastructure,

business and factories Waste from the factories is one of the main causes of

surface water pollution since the drainage of the factories are connected to rivers

that flow to the lake or oceans that affects aquatic life Domestic waste is also

another major contributor to the pollution of freshwater bodies including rivers

and lakes Water pollution is the presence of any toxic chemical and biological agents that have exceeded the amount needed for the water to be acceptable for human use and

it can be a threat to human, animals and other living organisms that use water for survival (Environmental Pollution Center, 2017; WWF, 2017) Human activities introduce chemicals into water bodies that cause water pollution (Woodford, 2017) Woodford (2017) further added that every ocean and every continent from the tropics to the Polar Regions is contaminated And now, water pollution is the leading global cause of deaths and diseases that accounts to 14,000 people deaths daily (Fulekar, 2010)

Laguna Lake is the biggest lake in the Philippines with multiple purpose

or uses It provides food, income, livelihood, water resources needed for

agriculture, fish farms and poultry farms that have been supporting the people

living along the Laguna Lake (Santos-Borja, 2002) The outlet of the Laguna

Lake is the Pasig River which is connected to Manila Bay

Figure 1.1 Map of Laguna (Laguna De Bay: Environment Literacy)

The watershed hosts about 66 Local Government Units (LGUs) that are

group into 5 provinces, 49 municipalities and 12 cities with an estimated

population of 6 million people In 1966, Laguna Lake Development Authority

has been created and started from the provinces of Rizal and Laguna with the

vision of the political leaders to cultivate the potential of the lake for further

development and at the same time, to control the environmental degradation

1.2 Research Objectives

There are four (4) objectives in this study research (1) The study aims to

determine the level of awareness of the local communities on the environmental

pollution problems of Laguna Lake and the impacts on their health and

livelihood; (2) compare the health and livelihood of local communities in urban

and rural communities; (3) assess government programs that address health

issues of the local communities; (4) and to formulate recommendations that will

help the local communities and the government to reduce pollution towards

conservation of water resources in the lake

1.3 Research Questions and Hypotheses

1.3.1 Research Questions

1 What are the livelihood and health issues experienced by the local

communities in urban and rural areas related to water pollution in Laguna Lake?

2 Are the local communities aware that Laguna Lake is facing

environmental problems that can affect their health and livelihood?

3 How does the local government address the impacts of water pollution on

the health and livelihood of the local communities?

4 What are the alternative ways that the local government is promoting to

lessen the pollution and to conserve/rehabilitate the water in Laguna Lake?

1.3.2 Hypothesis

Null Hypotheses (Ho): The level of awareness and health issues of local

communities in urban areas are lower than the level of awareness and health

issues of local communities in rural areas

Alternative Hypotheses (Ha): The level of awareness and health issues of

local communities in urban area are higher than the level of awareness and health

issues of local communities in rural area

1.4 Scope and Limitation

1.4.1 Scope

The scope of the study involved a household interview in the selected

barangays representing rural and urban areas around Laguna Lake

There were two hundred and fifty-two (252) respondents in both rural and

urban areas The places chosen for three (3) rural and three (3) urban areas

should be around at the Laguna Lake, totaling to six (6) cities/municipalities in

Laguna In each city, respondents were selected from three areas: upstream,

middle stream and downstream In each stream two (2) communities were

selected, totaling to six (6) communities per city/municipality

And in each community, seven (7) households were interviewed, totaling

to forty-two (42) respondents in each city/municipality With a total of two

hundred and fifty-two (252) respondents overall So, in urban areas there were

three (3) cities, eighteen (18) communities and one hundred twenty-six (126)

household respondents

And for rural areas, the same as in urban area, three (3) municipalities,

eighteen (18) communities and one hundred twenty-six (126) household

respondents

Key informant interview was conducted with the municipal agriculturists

to gather information on the programs and approaches to help farmers reduce the

use of inorganic fertilizers that affect the quality of water

Key informant interview with the barangay health officer was conducted

to elicit information on the conduct of seminars and programs that promote

awareness on the possible illness and diseases that the community may be

infected with from the use of contaminated or polluted water

The interview from the key informant are the guides for making a better

understanding and a better making of conclusion and recommendations In each

city/municipality the researcher interviewed one (1) agriculturist, total of three

(3) urban agriculturist and three (3) rural agriculturist, as a whole there will be

six (6) agriculturist and for the health worker, six (6) key informants were

interviewed in each community, in total of eighteen (18) health workers per

city/municipality

1.4.2 Limitations

The limitations met during the conduct of the study were (1) Time, since

the researcher has only five (5) months to do this research, and it was a short time

for interviewing and decoding with a such large data; (2) Weather, since the

Philippines is a tropical country it is often hit by a typhoon and heavy rains the

researcher’s schedule was affected; (3) Location, some of the locations of the

target respondents were difficult to access due to traffic along the way while

others were inaccessible due to flooding during heavy rains or typhoons and it

was a very time consuming especially traffic, even the researcher is early to

commute but along the way, traffic jam has already started

human use and it can be a threat to human, animals and other living organisms

that use water for survival (Environmental Pollution Center, 2017; WWF, 2017)

• Water Quality a word that helps to express the water sustainability that

is suitable for the use of living organisms and other various processes that have

some distinct requirements for biological, chemical and physical characteristics

of the water (Meybeck, M., Kuusisto, E., Mäkelä, A., & Mälkki, E., 1996)

PART II LITERATURE REVIEW

Environmental pollution is spreading fast around the word as the human

population grows and it is very much a problem since it affects human wellness

and health (Khan and Ghouri, 2011) Pollution of water bodies has multifaceted

impacts including poor quality of crop harvests leading to higher crop harvest

wastage, non-portability of fresh water, and biodiversity loss in aquatic habitats

(Grossman and Kruegar, 1994)

Chemical and industrial wastes coming from factories, households and

garbage pollute water The air is getting unbreathable since the smokes coming

from various vehicles are getting mixed up with oxygen that is becoming harmful

to health Water and air pollution lead to extinction of some species thereby

leading to biodiversity loss All of these factors result to the loss of natural

beauty of our Mother Earth (Grossman and Kruegar, 1994)

Pollution is a global problem that affects human population Its effect is

hard to understand as humans are exposed to harmful chemicals that may have

been mixed into their food or water Different kinds of pollutants have different

effects in humans, like run-off waste water have gotten mix to the flow of

running water, as human consume it, this may cause a water-related disease

(Schell, Gallo, Denham, & Ravenscroft, 2006)

Developing countries are growing faster in terms of industries, that even

though it is part of their economic growth, problems on water quality for

household use and other activities arise An example is India though primarily an

agricultural economy is having problems of water pollution And water pollution

has serious impacts on the human health, economy and the ecosystem (Behera

and Reddy, 2006)

Air and water are essential for the well-being and healthy life of humans

and all living organisms on Earth According to European Public Health Alliance

(2009), air and water pollution is common around the world EPHA (2009)

added that according to WHO approximately 1.1 billion people, which is one

sixth of the world’s population, do not have access to drinkable water (Khan and

Ghouri, 2011) Therefore, the near future will be facing a lot of problems

especially in the environment if water and air is not given immediate attention

and solution

As the population grows around the lake, people rely on the resources

from the lake such as multi-use water resource, supporting agriculture and

aquaculture, livestock and poultry, and various industries (Acosta, 2013) Such

activities led to increasing water pollution in the lake

LLDA (2013) added that the threats in the water quality in Laguna Lake

are the run-off pesticides and fertilizers from agriculture, and heavy metals from

mining and industries, untreated domestic wastes from the informal settlements,

toxic chemicals from factories, and rapid population growth Fish kills, algal

blooms and invasive species are the other factors that degrade water quality in

Laguna Lake

Forests that are being converted into commercial lands are becoming a

real problem Philippines is a tropical country that is often hit by typhoons and

heavy rains Floods and landslides caused by typhoons and heavy rains are

becoming more frequent resulting to occurrence of water related diseases, death

and property loss (Santos-Borja, 2002)

Santos-Borja (2002) also added that uncontrolled urban human settlements

near the lake is also a problem as their solid and liquid wastes pollute the body of

water which makes the water quality poor

PART III METHODOLOGY 3.1 Materials

The materials needed for the survey:

• Questionnaires The questionnaire contains general information of the respondents and of the key informants including name, age, and family

background information It also contains a section about their experiences and

observations they noticed on the effects of contaminated water on their health

and livelihood for the past few years Another section dealt with documenting

seminars or projects that the government has implemented to mitigate the effects

of water pollution and other environmental problems in the lake The household

and key informant interviews were conducted in both urban cities and rural

municipalities The questionnaires were given out to the sampled respondents

who were willing to answer the printed questionnaire Some of the questions

were multiple choice and narrative for the respondents to fill up with their

opinions and perspectives

• Microsoft Excel It was used by the researcher for the encoding of data that were gathered from the randomly selected households Secondary data of the

urban and rural areas on health and livelihood which were obtained from the

barangay health centers and the office of agriculture were also encoded using MS

Excel

3.2 Methods

3.2.1 Sample Size

In each city/municipality, the researcher chose six (6) communities which

were one (1) city/municipality divided into three (3) groups: up-stream,

middle-stream and down-middle-stream; for each group, there were two (2) communities and

seven (7) respondents from each group with a total of forty-two (42) household

respondents per city/municipality There were one hundred twenty-six (126)

respondents from urban cities and one hundred fifty-two (126) respondents from

rural municipalities and with a total of two hundred fifty-two (252) household

respondents Each respondent from each group may have different opinions that

may help the researcher to make specific recommendations to support the local

communities and the government to address water pollution For the Key

Informant Interview, one (1) agriculturist from each city/municipality was

interviewed, with a total of three (3) urban agriculturists and three (3) rural

agriculturists In total, there were six (6) agriculturist and there was a total of

eighteen health workers interviewed for the KII

3.2.2 Research Design

The design of this research is a comparative study The research area for

this study was composed of urban cities and rural municipalities For the urban

area, Cabuyao City, Santa Rosa City and San Pedro City were chosen while for

the rural municipalities of Pila, Victoria and Pagsanjan were chosen as they fit

the criteria for the study

The criteria for selecting the places for the survey were: (1) the city or

municipality should be surrounding the Laguna Lake; (2) the places can be

distinguished as an urban city and rural municipality; and lastly, (3) houses

should be in upstream, midstream and downstream areas

Random Sampling Method was used in this study to identify the

household respondents

3.2.3 Data Gathering Process

The researcher went to the government offices of each city or municipality

to present the study proposal and to request for their approval and support in the

conduct of the study in their area With the Mayor’s approval, the researcher

conducted the household survey and key informant interviews Before starting

the actual survey, the researcher explained the purpose of the survey to each

respondent and sought their participation so that they can help the researcher to

formulate recommendations that may help them in the near future

The survey was done by going to random household with a printed

questionnaire that was used to interview the respondents In each municipality

and city, key informant interviews were conducted with the health and

agricultural officers The survey data were encoded in Microsoft Excel for data

analysis and interpretation

PART IV RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 4.1 General Information

In this section, the general and background information of the respondents

in both urban and rural areas will be shown

4.1.1 Age Frequency

The age of the respondents ranged from below 20 years old to above 70

years old and was divided into seven categories (Fig 2) Figure 2 below shows

that in rural area the highest frequency of participants is from the age 51 years to

60 years old age class while in urban areas, age classes 31-40 and 51-60 years

old have higher frequency than other age classes Further, there is higher

frequency of participants older than 61 years old from urban areas

Figure 2: Age Frequency from Rural and Urban areas

4.1.2 Gender Distribution

There are two categories for the gender distribution which are male and female

Fig 3 shows that out of two hundred fifty-two (252) respondents of both rural

and urban areas, one hundred eighty-two (182) respondents that were interviewed

31 years to 40 years

41 years to 50 years

51 years to 60 years

61 years to 70 years

More than 70 years

Rural Urban

were ‘Female’.And ninety-nine (99) respondents out of one hundred eighty-two

(182) were from rural municipalities

Figure 3 Gender Distribution in Urban and Rural

4.1.3 Marital Status

Fig 4 shows that generally, majority of the respondents from both urban

and rural areas are married In the urban areas eighty-two (82) respondents are

married In both urban and rural areas, there were no divorced respondents

Figure 4 Marital Status of both Urban and Rural Areas

0 20

4.1.4 Educational Attainment

Figure 5 shows that one hundred thirty-three (133) respondents from both

rural and urban areas are high-school graduates In urban areas, there are

forty-four (44) respondents that have finished only elementary education as they

worked in their early age Thirty-one out (31) of one hundred twenty-six (126)

respondents from rural municipalities that are in categories of ‘undergraduate’

and ‘graduate’

Figure 5: Educational Attainment Graph Comparison of Urban and Rural

areas

4.1.5 Employment Status

Figure 6 shows the employment status of respondents from urban city and

rural municipalities It is clearly shown that the majority of respondents from

both urban and rural areas are unemployed consisting of 48% percent of all

respondents in both urban and rural areas

None Vocational

Figure 6: Employment Status of Rural and Urban in graph form

4.2 Knowledge and Awareness of the Community about Water Pollution in Laguna Lake and Its Effects on Their Health and Livelihood

4.2.1 Perspective on the water quality of Laguna Lake and how they know it

This section will present the perspective of the respondents on the water

quality of Laguna Lake and how they got the idea about the water quality Figure

7 shows that sixty-two (62) percent of the respondents both rural municipalities

and urban cities chose that the water quality of the Laguna lake is ‘dirty’ and

whereas eighty-three (83) respondents from urban city have answer ‘dirty’

The researcher put a criterion that if the water is ‘opaque’ then the water

will consider as ‘dirty’ and for the ‘clean’, the criteria for it if the water is

‘translucent’ In Figure 8, seventy-seven (77) respondents from rural

municipality have answered that they’ve heard it from a radio or watched it in the

news And twenty-two (22) percent of the respondents from both rural and urban

areas have left no answer in this part

Figure 7 Opinion about water quality in Laguna Lake

Figure 8 Respondents answer on where they got the idea of the water quality

in Laguna Lake

4.2.2 Laguna Lake is experiencing Environmental Problems

Figure 9 below shows that one hundred eighty-one (181) respondents

from both rural and urban areas think that lake has environmental problems and

that is very alarming Referring to Figure 8, respondents have been experiencing

the environmental problems that are happening in the lake, for example, some

Experiences Articles/Newspaper

RESPONDENTS Rural Urban

fishermen told the researcher that they barely catch fish because of slow growth

of fish

Figure 9 Perspective of the respondents on Laguna Lake experiencing

environmental problems

4.2.3 Reasons of Environmental Problems in Laguna Lake

Figure 10 shows that out of two hundred fifty (252) respondents from

urban and rural areas, one hundred eighty-two (182) respondents chose ’waste

disposal management’ as the reason why the lake has been experiencing

environmental problems that includes waste from the households and factories

The ‘people’ category refers to undisciplined people who keep throwing trashes

to the surroundings There is a lot of public transport in the Philippines and

‘vehicles’ category refers to those that leak oil that may flow to a canal and

ultimately to the lake, especially the vehicles in the downstream areas And

‘nature’ category refers to the natural occurrence like floods, typhoons, etc

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

Figure 10 Reason why Laguna Lake have environmental problems

Figure 11 A canal in Cabuyao City

4.3 Health and Livelihood

This section will show and discuss the data gathered in the interview

about impacts of the water quality in their household and the lake to see if

they’ve caught any water borne diseases for the last 5 years and their livelihood

4.3.1 Water Quality Affects Health and Livelihood

0 20

Figure 12 shows that seventy-three (73) respondents from urban area think

the water quality in their household affects their health Most of the people in

urban areas drink mineral water which is quite expensive but the residents have

no choice if they want to drink safe water to avoid sickness

On the other hand, sixty-six (66) out of one hundred twenty-six (126)

respondents from the rural areas do not think that water affects their health

However, some of them chose ‘yes’ because water affects their livelihood,

especially the fisherman and farmers, as the farmers need it for irrigation and for

the fisherman need to catch fish for income But due to poor quality of water, the

crops do not grow well and fishes are getting smaller in population and size

Figure 12 Water quality affects health and livelihood

4.3.2 Conservation of Water

Figure 13 shows that one hundred forty-eight (148) respondents from both

urban and rural areas do not conserve water, making up fifty-nine (59) percent of

the total respondents This clearly shows that the respondents lack awareness on

the need to conserve water and in the near future, water scarcity will begin

Figure 13 Conserving of water in Rural and Urban areas

4.3.3 Sewage Connection

Figure 14 shows that in urban areas, seventy-eight (78) respondent said

that their sewage is connected to the river and lake and only sixteen (16) said it is

connected to the rice field, while in rural areas, sixty-one (61) responded that the

sewage is connected to the rice fields or spring

Figure 14 Sewage connection of Urban and Rural areas

Since agriculture is mostly practiced in rural areas, this maybe one of the

reasons why farmers are not getting the best quality of their crops And

River Lake Spring Rice Field I don't know