URC, a major local sugar company in the Philippines, continuously discharged untreated wastewater from ethanol fermentation—specifically distillers’ grains—into the Tanawan Strait Marine Protected Area for a period of nine months. Data from scientific field surveys show that 69% of the coral in the reserve has died off over large areas, coastal seagrass beds are rapidly deteriorating, and populations of fish and shrimp in the nearshore waters have nearly vanished. The waste liquid has introduced excessive nutrients, causing water eutrophication and the formation of large areas of anoxic dead zones within the bay, pushing the entire marine ecosystem to the brink of collapse.
Leave a Reply