500 cooperatives in Davao pool funds to adopt watersheds

DAVAO CITY—At least 500 cooperatives have agreed to pool resources to finance efforts to save the city’s aquifers by planting new trees and putting a stop to the cutting of existing ones.

Tagged “Adopt A Site,” the project was put together by the Davao City Water District (DCWD).

The cooperatives agreed to each set aside P6,000 for every hectare of watershed that they would “adopt” under the project.

Agripino Torres, vice chair of the Davao City Cooperative Development Council, said the agreement with DCWD would raise a significant amount for tree planting in Barangay Tungkalan in Toril district.

He said under the agreement, the pooled fund would amount to P3 million per year for about 500 hectares of watershed area. The project would run for five years, he said.

Torres said 15 cooperatives have started planting trees on a 15-ha area.

DCWD earlier said dwindling tree population in watershed areas was not only drying up the city’s aquifers but was also contributing to the city’s worsening floods.

In June, over 30 people were killed and thousands of others were displaced when floods hit four villages of the city.

Though recognizing that deforestation was one of the culprits for the disaster, the city government also pointed to clogged drainage systems and the lack of flood control projects.

Two weeks ago, Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson said during a visit here that his agency was ready to build flood control projects, like catch basins, but the city government should do its part by moving illegal settlers out of the way.

“We should make sure the waterways are cleared of illegal occupants and structures. This is the more immediate solution. We will do the physical intervention but not the social intervention,” Singson said.

He said catch basins are considered a long-term solution to flooding but the immediate solution is to clear waterways of illegal occupants and structures.

“With climate change, the rainfall that is supposed to be for three months fell in just three days that’s why we have excessive floodwater. Thus, we need to retard that water upstream to be used for irrigation and most especially, to control flooding,” Singson said.

He said by catching rainfall in basins, water will be stored for other uses instead of ending up as floods downstream. “We cannot afford to have this kind of catastrophe every year,” said Singson. Judy Quiros, Inquirer Mindanao