Cognizant of the need to increase public awareness about the effects of inadequate sanitation to the environment, Laguna Water, the largest water and used water services provider in the Province of Laguna, brought its information, education, and communication program entitled Tamang Sanitasyon Equals Kalusugan, Kalinisan, at Kaunlaran ng Bayan (TSEK ng Bayan) to the municipalities of Pangil, Mabitac and Pagsanjan in Laguna.
TSEK ng Bayan educates people on the need for proper sanitation, focusing on the availability of toilet facilities and the need for wastewater treatment, to promote environmental sustainability and to ensure the health and safety of the community. The program also stresses how untreated used water contributes to the pollution of water resources which may lead to contamination of drinking water and environmental degradation while advocating the need to connect to an available sewer network or to desludge septic tanks every five years.
The local government units of Pangil, Mabitac and Pagsanjan also signed a Toka Toka agreement with Laguna Water during the conduct of TSEK ng Bayan in their respective municipalities. As Toka Toka partners, they commit to implement resolutions and ordinances that will increase the environmental responsiveness of the different communities in their respective towns. Toka Toka is the first and only environmental movement in the country that advocates proper management of used water in every household as an important share or stake (“Toka”) in reviving rivers and waterways.
The Department of the Interior and Local Government Region (DILG) IV-A recently joined the environmental movement and teamed up with Laguna Water in implementing various initiatives to restore the quality of Manila Bay by cleaning its tributaries such as the Laguna Lake and other waterways in the region.
In 2015, Laguna Water’s concession agreement with the Provincial Government of Laguna was amended authorizing the company to provide used water services in the entire Province.
Currently, Laguna Water is upgrading its sewage treatment plant located at the Laguna Technopark in Biñan to include a fully-mechanized septage treatment facility preparatory to the commencement of the company’s desludging service in the Province this year.