MWSS chief cites need for sustained watershed protection

Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) administrator Reynaldo Velasco has called on all major stakeholders from both government and private sector to pool their resources together and protect the country’s forest cover and watersheds to ensure water security and sustainable development.

Velasco said the country’s forest cover within forestland was now only 51.2 percent or 8.08 million hectares had remained forestlands which meant the area had not been forested and the remaining 48.8 percent comprised of 38.6 percent (6.10 million ha) forested and 10.2 percent (1.61 million ha) new forest.

Velasco recently addressed close to 1,000 delegates at the PhilWater 2017 Conference in Bohol organized by the Philippine Waterworks Association with the theme, “Shared Water Resources in River Basins for Sustainable Management and Development.”

Citing a Philippine Development Plan data, Velasco said the Philippines was blessed with abundant water resources with the country’s 421 principal and 18 major river basins and renewable water totaling 479 billion cubic meters from which water could be drawn for beneficial use.

“These water resources, however, are threatened with wanton disregard for environmental conservation and protection. Deforestation has greatly affected our country’s watersheds,” Velasco said.

He said that watersheds need trees to absorb rainwater which channeled it into streams, rivers and eventually dams where human communities source fresh water.

The country, Velasco said, was faced with the sad reality that its forest cover decreased by 328,682 ha from 7,168,400 ha in 2003 to 6,839,718 ha in 2010, which represented an annual forest cover loss of 46,954 ha.