DILG urged to conduct environmental audit on LGUs

CLARK FREEPORT -- Senator Loren Legarda asked the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) on Thursday to conduct an environmental audit on local government units (LGUs) to check if they are implementing and enforcing laws designed to protect the environment.

Legarda issued the statement during the Regional Workshop on Climate Change and Adaptation and Disaster Risk Reduction in Central Luzon at the Oxford Hotel inside the Freeport.

Legarda said LGUs should initiate and lead the people in implementing programs provided under Republic Act 9003 (Ecological Solid Waste Management Act) from the simple segregation of garbage.

Legarda, chair of the Senate Committee on Climate Change, has partnered with the Local Government Academy (LGA), DILG, and Agencia Espanol de Cooperacion Internacional para el Desarroloo (AECID to organize the event.

The workshop was centered on the Pampanga River Basin, and aimed at assisting LGUs in developing effective disaster risk reduction and management strategies in their respective areas.

“It is imperative that we hold these kinds of workshops because the Pampanga River Basin, the fourth largest in the country, is central to many lives and industries. It serves as an irrigation source for one of te country’s largest food baskets and a surface water source for about 90 percent of the domestic water use in Metro Manila and its outskirts,” she said.

“It is also a haven of biodiversity. But its good geographical profile gives rise to many risks. These include flooding, severe water pollution, water-related diseases such as dengue, typhoid fever, and malaria, droughts, and even earthquakes. The basin experiences at least one flooding annually,” she added.

The Pampanga River Basin is composed of three river systems – Pampanga, Angat and Pasac.

According to Pagasa and DOST, it covers an aggregate area of 10,540 square kilometers and experiences maximum rainfall depth during the latter half of the year.