Bill on sustainable water hoped approved this year

A bill that will ensure sustainable water supply for Metro Cebu is now pending before the Senate committee on natural resources, and that it is "hoped approved this year as the House resumes its session on May 15," says Cebu 1st district Rep. Eduardo Gullas, author of the re-filed bill.

House Bill No. 4862 or the Central Cebu Protected Landscape Act of 2005 seeks to consolidate the management of Metro Cebu's five protected areas by one policy-making body, called the Central Cebu Protected Landscape-Protected Area Management Board.

Gullas said the body will manage the Buhisan watershed and four other protected areas, including the Mananga and Kotkot-Lusaran forest reserves, and the Central Cebu and Sudlon national parks.

In Gullas' proposed measure, Metro Cebu covers the cities of Cebu, Talisay, Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu; and the towns of Minglanilla, Consolacion, Liloan, Compostela and Cordova or about 29,062 hectares of land.

Gullas said the water problem, which has been thoroughly discussed in a series of multi-sectoral meetings initiated by Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal, prompted him to file the bill. He also said that Cebu north and south districts Reps. Raul del Mar and Antonio Cuenco, and other five Cebuano legislators, Cebu businessmen, the University of San Carlos-Water Resource Center, Cebu United for Sustainable Water, and Agusan 1st district Rep. Leovigildo Banaag - committee chairman on natural resources- have all supported his bill.

"Water is life. We need to safeguard these five watersheds so that we will have water for the present and the future," Gullas said, adding that the water supply in Metro Cebu has been seriously dwindling because of over-extraction from aquifers, and which has also caused saltwater intrusion into the groundwater table.

Gullas said he will appeal before Senate committee chairman on natural resources Pia Cayetano to mark House Bill 4862 urgent. The bill also seeks to preserve the flora and fauna in the five protected areas, which are considered "among the world's ecological hotspots."

When Gullas was governor of Cebu, the saltwater intrusion was still in P. Del Rosario street, but now he said it already reached the Capitol Site area or at the foot of the hills of Cebu City.

The mayors and district representatives from these localities must be members of the management board and will also elect the members of a 17-member executive committee. A special prosecutor, designated by the Justice department, will handle all cases pertaining to the preservation of the mentioned areas.

Gullas assured that families settled in the protected areas will not be displaced provided that they will police their own ranks in order to preserve these watersheds.

Under the bill, the tenured migrants shall be referred to individuals and households within the CCPL who have actually and continuously occupied such areas for five years prior to June 1, 1992.

But whenever practicable, the tenured migrant communities of more than five households occupying contiguous lots within CCPL shall be provided tenurial rights over their current habitation sites.

However, if these areas are subsequently identified as crucial for conservation, the tenured migrants shall be offered alternative sites within the appropriate zones with preference over the land resource users who are non-tenured migrants. - Garry B. Lao