I was on the field again today. We started the day with a visit to Brgy. Hinactacan, La Paz together Franco and Dave, an intern from a school in the Netherlands. His thesis was on the water issues in the barangays in Iloilo City and this is one of his chosen respondents. The Barangay is located in a somewhat far-flung area in Lapaz and is near the coast line. Their livelihood is mostly on fishing and farming. The place is mostly composed of mangrove areas in their coastlines and also a bird sanctuary for many endemic and migratory birds.
After dropping by their Brgy. Multi-Purpose hall for a quick chat of their water supply issues with the officials, we immediately went to travel to their coastline part as Dave needed to see and check their fishing setup and to interview a few locals. They had a tricycle prepared for us so it was not a good ol’ walk under the heat of the sun. The coast was quite far and I estimated it to be at least a kilometer away from the Brgy. hall.
We started surveying the area as Dave asked a local fisherman on his fishing methods with me and Franco as translators. He then guided us as we walked through the mangroves along the coastal line. Good thing it was low tide that time and the path are not that muddy. I was the backup documenter that time as I took pics of their fishing materials and videos of the scenario. We learned a few things such as how the recent typhoons destroyed their fish pens that is just a stone’s throw from the shoreline. It appeared to be idle recently but they are hoping the government to aid them in restoring the pens.
As we wait for the service vehicle to fetch us, we decided to tour the streets to see the setup of their water supply services. They had pumps and shallow wells to which the water extracted was used for cleaning dishes and washing clothes.
Here are the pics I took during our visit on Brgy. Hinactacan, Lapaz.