ILIGAN CITY – What used to be a filthy drainage canal in Purok de Oro in Barangay Poblacion is now a favorite hangout for locals after it was transformed into a koi pond.

Lito Dela Corta and Richard Digamo said that last year, they discovered how their neighbor’s tilapia thrived in the canal despite the polluted water that ran through it.

“They also had a koi carp which grew really big, so we thought it was possible to breed them here,” Dela Corta said.

They cleaned up the canal and gathered almost three hundred sacks of garbage from the drain which they also used to support the embankment.

Besides making the canal much more pleasing, the koi also had an unexpected health benefit to residents nearby.

“We also do not worry about mosquitoes anymore. They eat mosquito larvae,” said Digamo.

Digamo and Dela Corta feed their fish with leftovers from a nearby fast-food restaurant.

The two have also inspired others to replicate their makeshift fish pond.

Video: by Roxanne Arevalo