Majestic Paoay Lake gets ecotourism boost

Paoay Lake (File photo)

By Leilanie G. Adriano

Staff reporter

PAOAY, Ilocos Norte—The legendary Paoay Lake is getting a new conservation and management plan, courtesy of the ecotourism industry which is gaining ground from this town’s prime tourist destination.

Ma. Milagros Gonzales, provincial director of the Department of Tourism Laoag sub-office said representatives from the National Ecotourism Development Council (NEDC) arrived in Laoag City on April 16 to personally conduct a site inspection at the protected landscape of Paoay Lake as a possible model ecotourism development site in the country.

The NEDC is composed of representatives from the Departments of Tourism, Environment and Natural Resources, Interior and Local Government, Trade and Industry, Finance, National Economic Development Authority, Education and representatives both private sector and non-government organizations. As a policy-making body, the council is tasked to formulate and develop a national ecotourism strategy and program for the promotion and development of ecotourism in the country among others.  

“We are blessed in the province because the Paoay Lake Natural Park is one of the identified sites to be developed through a community-based public and private partnership and tourism enterprise zone,” Ms. Gonzales said.

Following the site inspection, the technical working group for ecotourism development will be meeting with Ilocos Norte Governor Ma. Imelda “Imee” R. Marcos for a courtesy call and to discuss possible ways on how the largest natural lake of the province can be further developed and promoted as an eco-tourism destination.

Paoay Lake is a natural body of fresh water without tributary. It has a depth of about six meters ideal for boating, kayaking and rowing. The water source is from the ground water flow and surface run-off from its surrounding hills. Critical water level is, so far, the only known factor that affects its water quality. As temperature increases, the water level decreases, thereby affecting the aquatic organisms. Water quality test, however, is done periodically on a quarterly basis.

The national park spans about 386 hectares locally known as “Dakkel a danum”. The lake was declared a national park in 1969 by virtue of Republic Act 5631.

Based on a legendary account, Paoay Lake was formed as a punishment to the early settlers who used to be immensely religious but turned wicked and preoccupied by material things. Their wicked acts earned the ire of their gods, thus submerged the place, turning it into a body of water, while the people were made into fishes with their fancy adornments, such as jewelries, still attached with them. These stories say that seated in Paoay Lake’s location was a group of three villages called Gumura, Siduma and Sintapuli. The first two villages were much like those communities, Sodom and Gomorrah, which according to the Holy Bible, were submerged in water as a form of punishment by God to the locals who turned wicked.

Other sources also suggest that the lake was a result of gigantic geological displacement that hit the Ilocos area in January 1641. A shattering earthquake followed by loud thunders and lightning, swallowed down the place, then burst back into the sky, thus, left a body of water.

Paoay Lake is surrounded by at least five barangays namely: Suba in the north, Nanguyudan and Pasil in the east, Sungadan in the south, and Nagbacalan in the west.