7 fishkill towns under state of calamity

Batangas City—Seven out of the ten towns around Taal Lake are now under the state of calamity following the massive fishkill that killed 1,206 metric tons of milkfish and tilapia, hurting the lake’s aquaculture industry in a continuing natural disaster that started last week.      According to Batangas Vice Governor Marc Leviste, the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (Provincial Council) declared the towns of  Talisay, Laurel, Agoncillo, San Nicolas, Alitagtag, Cuenca, at Sta. Teresita  under the state of calamity in the council’s regular session he presided today.

The seven towns affected by the fishkill are now under the state of calamity.

     The SP also approved the P10 million augmentation and support fund that Batangas Governor Vilma Santos-Recto could use to help the town that were affected by the  fishkill that affected the lake’s aquaculture industry.
     From the whooping 956 metric tons of cultured fish in the lake’s thousand fishcages that floated dead on Monday, the number was up as of today when 250 tons more of cultured fish were reported dead in Talisay town, the hardest hit among the towns that were affected by the fishkill.
     This, according to Leviste, pushed him and the provincial board members to declare the affected towns under the state of calamity.
     Earlier, Governor Vilma has already sent assistance to the towns affected by the fishkill and equipments to help the local government units bury the rotten fishes.  Tractors, backhoes from the provincial engineering office, along with its people were sent to help.  Expert from the provincial health office's sanitation division were also sent to help the towns bury their dead fish.

     The fishkill started last Thursday when the water upwelling or overturn pushed the bottom water up the surface, suffocating the cultured fish in the fishcages with the toxins and reduced the dissolved oxygen content in the lake water.
     In Batangas’ third congressional district, the ten towns surrounding Taal Lake are Agoncillo, Alitagtag, Balete, Cuenca, Laurel, MataasnaKahoy, San Nicolas, Sta.Teresita, Sto. Tomas, and Talisay. The city of Tanauan also belong to the third district.
     Since then, more than a thousand tons of fish have died.
     Taal Lake is declared as a protected area in 1996 by the  National Integrated Protected Area System (NIPAS). This means that by law, it is prohibited to put any structures such as fishcages and fishpens in the lake. (Mei Lubis)