MANILA: Cavite fishermen who find themselves without work as a result of a massive oil spill are now getting emergency food rations from the local government.
To get rice and canned goods, however, they have to help clean up the shores by collecting spilled diesel using bottles and other improvised scooping implements.
Mayor Jose Ricafrente of Rosario, Cavite said he implemented an emergency ‘food-for-work’ programme that involved residents in the clean-up of the spill that contaminated Manila Bay and the waters near the coastal town.
Ricafrente said fishermen and their families would help in the clean-up in exchange for rice and sardines.
Dead fish floated on the water and some residents fell ill from the fumes, as authorities said an estimated 500,000 litres of diesel oil cast a slick across 20 kilometres of the coastline of Rosario and the nearby towns of Naic, Tanza and Ternate.
Authorities said the slick was caused by either a leak at the submerged pipeline of the Petron Corporation oil terminal in Rosario or the tanker MT/Makisig that had unloaded diesel there last Thursday when the oil spill was discovered.
A four-litre bottle of diesel collected from the sea could be swapped for three kilos of rice and six cans of sardines.
The residents were collecting diesel from the water using bottles and other improvised scooping implements.
Residents who clean the beach in front of their houses are paid one kilo of rice.
“Even the children are helping out. We have asked them to wear face masks,” he said.
Locals said they feared for the immediate future of the bay’s vibrant fish and shellfish industry, which feeds millions of people in the capital and surrounding areas.
“Fish and shellfish are floating up dead. It could be months before the shellfish industry is revived unless the water is cleaned up soon,” Ricafrente said.
He said 40,000 people dependent on the fishing and shellfish industry in the bay were temporarily without jobs.
Asis Perez, head of the government’s fisheries and aquatic resources bureau, said the oil spill was impacting a vital section of the region’s fishing industry.
“Each boat here would typically haul in 30-40 kilos of fish a day, so definitely the impact is huge,” Perez said.
The Philippine star
