Two main rivers in the summer capital remain heavily polluted due in part to unregulated hog raising operations and sludge coming from Baguio’s public market and slaughterhouse, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) said. “Trillions of fecal coliform are being discharged into the Balili and Bued rivers,” Maria Victoria Abrera, Cordillera director of the Environmental Management Bureau, told reporters here on Wednesday. Balili, the subject of rehabilitation programs by both the government and a consortium of Baguio and Benguet universities, flows down to La Trinidad, the Benguet provincial capital, and joins Tuel River in Sablan town. Baguio shares Bued with the Benguet towns of Tuba and Itogon, which host some of the country’s oldest mines.

Cabreza, V. (2019, June 29). Baguio rivers remain heavily polluted–DENR. Philippine Daily Inquirer, p. A12.