Hair and feathers may not be such a good idea.

The Save Our Seas Movement based in Iloilo City is calling on technologists, scientists and engineers to provide practical solutions and operational support for the community-based clean-up and rehabilitation activities of the oil spill triggered by the sunken MT Solar 1 off the coast of Guimaras.

Locally available absorbent materials like rice straws, corn cobs, jute sacks, saw dust, etc. have been used as indigenous oil-spill booms to contain and collect oil from the shores off Guimaras and the towns of Ajuy and Concepcion in Northern Iloilo, Melvin Purzuelo of the Save Our Seas Movement said yesterday.

But he said they have encountered the following problems: *Chicken feathers smell bad - we need to reduce the smell so we can use these feathers otherwise we'll just add to the bunker oil fumes.

*Hair would take very long time to decompose not to mention the chemical treatments made before these were cut that could affect other life forms like sea grasses and mangroves - with no less than President Gloria Arroyo pitching for the gathering of hair, we expect these coming soon in very huge volumes. *Immediate disposal of oil-coated debris now stacked along the shores as oil leacheate could contaminate shallow groundwaters - there are suggestions to make these into fuel (briquetted) or with oil extracted these could made into organic fertilizers for bio-intensive vegetable gardening.

*During the habagat season the fishing communities of Guimaras are greatly dependent on gleaning (panginhas) along the seagrass and coral reef areas for food and livelihood. Vegetable gardening could be an alternative to gleaning, but the problem in Guimaras is the very limited land available with large portions of limestone rocks.

"We need technologies and capacity-building activities to enable communities to plant vegetables over these rocky areas," he added. Purzuelo said what is needed is help to promote initiatives that could enable communities to recover fast from this disaster in a dignified manner with other people's utmost respect.*CPG

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