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Monday, February 23, 2004
Cebu watersheds remain at risk
THE consolidation of five protected areas in central Cebu may be one of its initiatives, but the Cebu Uniting for Sustainable Water (CUSW) still has to reach out to many stakeholders, an official of the alliance said Friday.
CUSW outgoing president Fr. Margarito Alingasa, SVD, said many people are still unaware of the group’s projects for the protection of Cebu’s water sources.
Alingasa led about a hundred members of the multi-sectoral alliance concerned with protecting water resources in making an oath to fulfill CUSW’s mission.
“We, concerned Cebuanos, living under the same serious threat knowing that hardly 40 percent of Metro Cebu’s population is served with potable water system and considering the degraded condition of our watersheds and aquifers, have banded together...to arrest the trend of overstepping the threshold limits of water sustainability,” CUSW members said.
They pointed out that the key to economic and social progress is water.
“The sustainability of our water resources depends on proper governance ...which can be achieved through integrated water resources management,” they said.
The members are calling for stronger partnership between government, civil society and private sector “guided by principles of coherence, accountability, transparency, efficiency, equity and ethics.”
Formed in January 1995, CUSW comprises national government agencies, local government units and business, academe, women, youth, upland residents, farmers, fisherfolk, landowners, professional, urban poor, nongovernment and people’s organizations.
The alliance has been lobbying for the protection and proper management of legally protected watersheds in central Cebu, as well as other water sources, to ensure sustainable water.
The watersheds of Buhisan, Mananga and Kotkot-Lusaran and the national parks of Sudlon and Central Cebu were consolidated into one protected area, the Central Cebu Protected Landscape, through the initiatives of CUSW.
The consolidation is aimed at developing a more effective management program for the five protected areas.
CUSW also conducts information and education projects, including tours to the protected watersheds, radio programs on water issues and training for teachers on water education.
It is also helping the Cebu City Government improve an ordinance on rainwater collection as a way to conserve water resources.
But Alingasa admitted that nine years after CUSW was created, the degradation of Cebu’s watersheds and aquifers continues.
Due to deforestation, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) considers the condition of central Cebu’s protected watersheds as critical.
The University of San Carlos-Water Resources Center has identified the protected watersheds of Buhisan, Mananga and Kotkot-Lusaran as major sources of water in Metro Cebu.
Alingasa noted that many people are still apathetic to problems affecting water sources, which include pollution.
“It seems that all efforts ...devoted by CUSW to increase awareness about these situations amount to only ‘a drop in the ocean’, “ he said. “We still have a huge and difficult challenge to awaken people from their complacent attitude towards the creeping water crisis.”
Alingasa said all stakeholders must understand that integrated water resource management is the most effective way to tackle the complex water problem. LAP
(February 23, 2004 issue)
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