Only 3,000 trees to fall in Angat Dam rehab–DENR

Angat Dam. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

CITY OF MALOLOS—The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has allowed more than 3,000 trees to be cut at the Angat watershed in Bulacan province, not 26,000 trees as earlier reported.

The trees stand in the way of the old quarry from where the Hanjin Heavy Industries (HHI) would mine rocks as stabilizing materials for the rehabilitation of the 49-year-old Angat Dam, which supplies 97 percent of Metro Manila’s potable water.

HHI was the contractor commissioned by the Angat Hydropower Corp. (AHC) to undertake Phase 2 of the P1-billion rehabilitation project.

“The actual number approved by the DENR is 3,157 trees, but we approximate it to be lower than this number because of the possibility that we won’t need to expand the quarry once we mine all the materials we need to strengthen the dam,” said Russel Rigor, dam operations engineer of AHC.

The figure of 26,000 trees was based on a miscalculation of the number mentioned at a news conference on Tuesday.

But the DENR decision has alarmed local environmentalists.

Martin Francisco, president of Sagip Sierra Madre Environmental Society, said the loss of 3,000 trees would have serious impact on the biodiversity of the watershed.