Viene Xelo Pearl B.

Dagaraga CE19-B2

WEEK NO. 1

An area of land is able to drain or “shed” groundwater into a specific body of water is called a watershed. In

the city that I live in, according to PhilGIS (n.d.), the area of the Cagayan de Oro River Watershed flowing to the

sea is shown below:

PhilGIS (n.d.)

According to Cagayan de Oro Water District (2017), an addition to the collection of deep wells in Cagayan de

Oro of Cagayan de Oro Water District was done in 2017 in Sitio Palalan, Lumbia, which is close to our home. This

is called COWD Production Well No. 33. However, due to lack of sources online, the location of the well cannot be

found on Google Earth. Fortunately, there are plenty of deep well systems near our home which are not from

COWD. Instead, these are the deep well systems of their own subdivisions (Palanca-Tan, 2011). The one closest

is in Lessandra Heights, Gran Europa, Lumbia, in which its deep well is licensed in 2007.
Human activities commonly affect the distribution, quantity, and chemical quality of water resources. Luckily for

the deep wells mentioned, both the Production well no. 33 and Lessandra Heights deep well system, it is not

located near a mining area, a highly densely populated area, nor an industrial area. These are merely residential

parts of the city. However, deep wells can still be contaminated by both naturally occurring sources and by human

activities (United States Environmental Protection Agency, n.d.). Groundwater under residential areas can still be

affected by fuel oil storage tanks, household chemical storage and use, swimming pool chemical storage, septic

tanks and leach fields, sewer lines, floor drains, and lawn fertilizer storage and use. Also, as the area is a

deforested area, the loss of forest cover can increase runoff, thus, the increased runoff can accelerate soil erosion

and increase the sediment load and turbidity of water sources, thus decreasing the water quality (Naito, H. &

Mapulanga, A., 2019).

Since we’ve moved in Lumbia, we haven’t experienced any water interruption. Also, the color of tap water has

been clean and there are no other issues encountered so far. My friends who live outside the city, whose houses

are far from the highly densed and urbanized areas have never experienced water interruption and water

discoloration as well. In contrast to this, my friends who live in Brgy. Puntod and Brgy. Nazareth experience water

interruption at most once a month since January. Also, water discoloration would appear after an interruption and

a strong rainfall.

References:

Cagayan de Oro Water District. (2017). Drilling Of New Production Well #33 In Lumbia Completed. Retrieved from

http://www.cowd.gov.ph/news_detail.php?news_no=618

Naito, H. & Mapulanga, A., (2019). Effect of deforestation on access to clean drinking water. Proceedings of the

National Academy of Sciences Apr 2019, 116 (17) 8249-8254; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1814970116.

Palanca-Tan, R. (2011). Designing a Raw Water Fee Scheme for Groundwater Extraction in Cagayan de Oro,

Philippines. EEPSEA. eepseapartners.org/pdfs/pdfs/Rosalina-Tan-Technical-Report-Aug2011.pdf

PhilGIS (n.d.). Cagayan de Oro River Watershed. Retrieved October 20, from philgis.org/miscellaneous-data

sets/cagayan-de-oro-river-watershed-0

United States Environmental Protection Agency (n.d.). Potential Well Water Contaminants and Their Impacts.

Retrieved from https://www.epa.gov/privatewells/potential-well-water-contaminants-and-their-impacts