MANILA, Philippines - Multi-sectoral groups, led by Cagayan de Oro City Archbishop Antonio Ledesma, recently appealed to President Aquino to declare the Cagayan de Oro River basin a protected watershed to protect it from further exploitation.
The CBCPNews, official newsletter of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, said the devastation brought by tropical storm “Sendong” was the “result of irresponsible and wanton exploitation of our watershed forests, leading to river siltation which reduced the city’s capacity to hold enormous water load.”
They also asked Aquino to create the Cagayan de Oro River Basin Management Council that would oversee the protection of the city’s watershed area.
They asked the Aquino administration to give priority to the completion of the river basin plan and to mandate concerned agencies and officials to coordinate to finalize it.
“We also encourage the President to certify as urgent pending legislative measures in Congress regarding the creation of the said River Basin Management Council and to implore the members of Congress to hasten the passage of such bill into law, which is tied to the adaptation strategy which is embodied in the national climate change action plan which the President signed last Nov. 24, 2011,” the groups said in a resolution.
The groups said residents of the affected communities, non-government organizations and national government agencies should unite in preventing the “deterioration of the river basin and to reduce future risks of disasters in the affected areas.”
The groups cited the need to inform the people on “the real situation of (the) river basin and educate them on the effects of small-scale and large-scale mining, deforestation, and poorly planned urbanization on the environment and on the communities.”
They also called on local government units and the national government to work closely “in carefully tracing and purposively analyzing the causes, both primary and contributory, of the siltation of the Cagayan and Iponan rivers and the flooding in the surrounding areas.”
They said Aquino’s efforts should not end after helping the victims, but that he should also address the root causes of the catastrophe and hold accountable the persons and entities that contributed to it.
“We are hopeful that together with our leaders, we shall never again be caught unawares and that henceforth, we will protect our rivers so that these will continuously help sustain and not curtail lives,” the groups said.
Sendong wreaked devastation in Cagayan de Oro and nearby towns when rampaging floodwaters engulfed houses along riverbanks, killing and injuring hundreds of people and displacing thousands of families.
Authorities said the flashfloods have claimed the lives of more than 1,000 people in Cagayan de Oro and other areas.