Saturday, September 15, 2007 Make Cebu City a ‘City of Rivers’: management body
CEBU City officials and other stakeholders want to make the city a “City of Rivers” and an ecotourism destination in 15 years.
But with very little cooperation from barangays, they fear it will just remain a dream.
Councilor Nestor Archival and members of the Cebu City River Management Council urged the 11 barangays surrounding Guadalupe River to help clean up and protect the river from pollution.
Keeping the river clean will not only help realize their vision but will also prevent heavy flooding like what happened in the city after a heavy downpour last Wednesday.
Domestic wastes
The council specifically asked residents of Barangays Sapangdaku, Guadalupe, Calamba, Kalunasan, Sambag I and II, Pahina Central, Kamputhaw, Duljo-Fatima and Pasil to refrain from throwing domestic wastes into the river and other public places.
If the communities in the barangays cooperate to protect the river, members of the council believe their areas can be an eco-tourism destination.
Other river systems in Buhisan, Budlaan and the Mahiga creek, if protected, can also be part of the eco-tourism trail.
Archival admitted, though, that the City Government has to provide more livelihood programs to the mountain barangay communities to keep them from engaging in economic activities that pollute the river and the environment.
Coastal barangays
“If there are a lot of wastes from the mountain barangays, naturally these will be washed away and come down to the coastal barangays. But we also know that without economic projects, our progress in the management of coastal barangays will fail,” he told a news conference after their State-of-the-Water Address yesterday.
City Planning Officer Nigel Paul Villarete also urged the 1,000 families whose shanties are on the Guadalupe riverbank to vacate their dwellings to ensure their own safety and improve the condition of the river.
He said 80 percent of the wastes thrown into the river are domestic wastes coming from the nearby houses.
Despite the presence of pollutants, Villarete said that dragonflies have returned to communities near the river, which they consider a sign that the quality of the Guadalupe River has already improved.
Stakeholders
City officials and other stakeholders from the private sector, nongovernment organizations, academe and the barangays agreed there is a need to increase livelihood assistance to the communities to encourage them to protect their areas and make it ideal for an eco-tourism destination.
Efforts to clean up rivers should start from the people in the barangays themselves and they should not rely on volunteers and other sectors, they said. (LCR)
