Thursday, April 26, 2007 Dads told to review city’s dev’t plans By Rimaliza Opiña
SHOULD the City Government continue promoting Baguio as an education and business center of the north now that it is bursting at the seams because of overpopulation?
Pointing out that overpopulation in this mountain resort city is largely due to domestic migration, lawyer and former city official Betty Lourdes Tabanda, president of the Family Planning Organization of the Philippines Baguio - Benguet chapter, said it is high time for city planners to review its development plans and study the development concept formulated for its neighboring towns in Benguet.
Although there are economic gains in promoting Baguio as an education center, Tabanda pointed out, this also translates to the fact that a local government should be responsible in providing basic social services of its inhabitants. These social services include adequate water supply, housing, health care, power and food, among others.
"Population has a direct relationship with available resources," Tabanda said in a press briefing on Wednesday.
It may be recalled that the City Planning and Development Coordinating Office, in a forum hosted by the Saint Louis University Alumni Foundation last year, revealed that the city’s population of 300,000 people is expected to double in 24 years or that 6,000 people would be added annually to the present population.
The report also showed that from 1903 to 1999, the city’s population gradually increased, even surpassing the regional growth rate of one percent for every year. The highest population growth rate was even said to have occurred from 1960 to 1970, which was pegged at five percent.
Students outside of Baguio who decide to reside here permanently were the ones identified as the largest contributors to the growing population.
"And could we meet the demands of a growing population?" Tabanda asked.
The same report revealed that unemployment, underemployment, pollution, traffic congestion, as well as solid and liquid waste management are problems that the city government continues to address.
She said there is also a mismatch in terms of skills, education and the types of jobs that are available here.
Water quality was also said to be a problem. Accordingly, 25 percent of the city’s population concentrated in seven barangays does not have access to safe and potable water.
The lack of regulatory measures to control deepwell diggings, especially by private water extraction companies, also threatens the city’s water reserve to the effect that even the existing waterways like the Balili and Bued rivers have been declared biologically dead because of the amount of pollution dumped in these bodies of water.
And although reforestation programs have been undertaken, the program reportedly is fragmented because most are concentrated at city parks.
In terms of land use, rapid expansion of domesticated areas has ensued over the past few years, resulting to the encroachment of protected areas like forests and watersheds.
Air pollution is also a growing concern. With the majority of activities done within the central business district (CBD), a study of the Traffic and Transportation Management Committee revealed that at least 2,500 motor vehicles converge at the seven square kilometer area within the city’s central business district daily.
Add to this is the fact that the terminals of jeepney and bus lines are proximate to the CBD thereby increasing the air pollution level there.For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Iloilo.
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