Manila, Philippines — The relocation of thousands of informal settlers occupying portions of the lakeshore villages in at least nine municipalities in Rizal province and the reforestation of areas near the tributaries in Laguna Lake are two of the conditions that should be addressed before the provincial government agrees to the planned P18.7 billion rehabilitation project for Asia’s third largest freshwater lake.

In a statement, Rizal Governor Casimiro “Junjun” Ynares III said he will throw his support to the multibillion- peso lake dredging project but steps “must be taken first before that massive dredging is done.”

In agreeing to the project, Gov. Ynares said the cleaning up of Laguna Lake “is important and will benefit the local governments in the lakeshore areas.”

The provincial government blames undisciplined informal settlers along the lakeshore towns in the province for the blocking of water passageways in the lake as their garbage pile up and end up floating in the lake.

Ynares said if the informal settlers will not be relocated, they could again cause massive problems in the lake with their garbage as well as their blocking of water passageways.

Gov. Ynares, a former head of the Laguna Lake Development Authority (LLDA), also said that there should be reforestation of the areas surrounding the tributaries of Laguna Lake, to ensure that there will be no subsequent soil erosion, and the massive clean-up of the waterways leading up to Asia’s third largest body of fresh water.

Ynares also said the project should include provisions for the relocation for the hundreds of thousands of informal settlers living at the lakeshore communities and consultation with the lake area stakeholders and local government units within the Laguna de Bay region.

The young governor warned that dredging the lake without these steps “is a perfect recipe for waste of public funds”. He explained that typhoons which regularly pass through the lakeshore region would simply bring debris and silt back the lake making the massive dredging futile.

“If not, the P18.7 billion in taxpayers' money that will be spent on the dredging project will just go to waste,” Ynares warned.

Clean up efforts for the lake will likewise be useless unless the informal settler communities will refrain from dumping human wastes, the governor pointed out.

“These steps have become even more important especially in view of plans to simply dredge the middle portion of the lake and push the silt to the wall of the basin,” Ynares explained.

Ynares assured the public that he “supports plans to clean up the lake” but the efforts should be done right.

“I am not against the proposed dredging, but I strongly believe that steps need to be taken to ensure that the people’s money that will be used in this project will not go down the drain,” Ynares said.