LITO de la Corta, 54, only wanted to end the foul odor emanating from the murky and polluted Baslayan creek area near his house. It was also a breeding ground for the big flies and mosquitoes that annoy his family and, yes, threaten the health of their neighborhood.
Then de la Corta saw his neighbor make a pond in the creek for tilapia production, just enough for family consumption.
So, from his neighbor’s raw clearing, he cleaned a 60-square-meter area of the creek, just by the outer opening of the manhole at the side of the national highway section fronting Gaisano Mall in Iligan City.
The manhole was the drain of four drainage culverts where wastewater from commercial and residential areas flowed out.
The Baslayan creek section at Purok de Oro, Zone 3, drains to the coast in Tambacan.
It was November 18, 2016, when he started cleaning and clearing the place. It was really a trash creek where garbage piled up, leachate and flotsam mixed with slowly running murky canal water. Now it has become a koi fishpond, looking like a big aquarium with the few décors he set up.
More than 100 big koi fishes of various colors are thriving in a pond with continuous clear water running through it.
It’s really a big wonder how the canal water became clear and looked refreshing.
De la Corta’s pond is now a city attraction.
He simply put up screens to filter the running canal water, and it became clear, he said in an interview with the BusinessMirror last Thursday.
He’s earning a little from the feed pellets for the kois at P5 per small pack. Anyone who wants to have all the colorful kois come before him has only to throw feed pellets to the kois—to enjoy the sight and, at the same time, contribute a small amount to help maintain the environment.
De la Corta is an itinerant seller of everything—from cars, spare parts, lots, etc.
How he wished civic clubs in Iligan City would step in to be a cooperator and “mount their tarpaulins here”.
He said donations of flowers, neem trees, more kois and décors are most welcome.
He and his neighbor with the tilapia pond were recently given an award by City Mayor Celso Regencia for their innovative project that could be replicated to clean canals nationwide.
Where before the Baslayan Creek section near Lito’s house could immediately become the dumping ground of neighbors’ wastes, it has become almost a big aquarium now where people are ashamed to throw their wastes, and children no longer pee on the sides of the canal.
Image credits: Cha Monforte