ORMOC CITY Mayor Lucy Torres-Gomez on July 31, 2023 signed Executive Order No. 2023-0063, officially creating the Ormoc City Water Quality Laboratory to be located in Brgy. San Pablo, this city.
Accordingly, the city believes that the establishment of a Water Quality Laboratory is key to the attainment of the Ormoc Bay Water Quality Implementation Plan and will cater to the bacteriological, physical, and chemical analysis of natural water, wastewater, and discharge effluents from industries in this city.
Further, accordingly, this city’s local government unit is wholly committed to the implementation of actions that address water quality issues and ensure safe and healthy drinking water for all, and for this purpose, it is now in the process of acquiring the needed equipment to establish the Ormoc Waste Water Laboratory.
In addition, the city is of the belief that the existence of a Water Quality Laboratory will hasten the city’s compliance and submission of monitoring reports with respect to general water and wastewater quality standards as required by the Department of the Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), further reducing the costs for sampling and testing.
Further, in adapting the ten-year Ormoc Bay Water Quality Implementation Plan, the LGU primarily aims to address the existence of Fecal coliforms in Ormoc in compliance with DENR AO No. 08, series of 2016 for water quality guidelines and general effluent standards.
Accordingly, through Administrative Order No. 21, Series of 2013, the DENR has officially designated Ormoc Bay and its associated watersheds as a Water Quality Management Area (WQMA), aimed at protecting and improving the water quality of Ormoc Bay and all associated water bodies to make them a sustainable source for the people of Ormoc City as well as for its neighboring towns. Finally, the said EO also approves the designation of a laboratory manager from ENRO-Ormoc, who shall perform such functions as to oversee the technical operations, safety, resource provision, human resource management, and service performance of the Water Laboratory; to manage the corrective and preventive action system, equipment calibration, maintenance programs, and the internal audit program; and other related tasks. By Gwen Maurillo (EV Mail July 31-August 6, 2023 issue)
