Saturday, December 15, 2007 CH to enter into project to rehabilitate Buhisan
CEBU City will embark on a five-year project that seeks to revitalize the Buhisan River to ensure a sustainable water supply and promote ecotourism in four mountain barangays.
Through the Buhisan Watershed Integrated Development Program, various stakeholders hope to double the 5,000 cubic meters of the reservoir’s daily yield, and at the same time develop it to become a tourist destination.
The program will cover the entire Buhisan Watershed Forest Reserve, a 630-hectare portion of the Central Cebu Protected Landscape.
Communities in Barangays Toong, Buhisan, Pamutan and Sapangdaku will benefit from the project.
The proponents hope to provide livelihood opportunities and improve the city’s water supply, sanitation and health through infrastructure improvements like access roads and clean public toilets.
Implementors
The Cebu City Rivers Management Council, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Philippine Business for Social Progress, the Cebu Uniting for Sustainable Water Foundation Inc. and the Metropolitan Cebu Water District will implement the project.
For the various agencies, the project will help abort a water shortage crisis in Cebu.
Osmeña and representatives of the partner agencies were supposed to sign the memorandum of agreement (MOA) for the project yesterday afternoon but the signing was postponed.
“The silent water crisis has reached a critical level and has been aggravated by a progressive saltwater intrusion. It affects the sustainability of Cebu’s growth and development and it has to be addressed,” the proponents said in the MOA.
They hope to complete the project by 2012 to meet three Millennium Development Goals targets: alleviate poverty, reverse losses due to environmental degradation and increase access to potable water.
“With a structurally fragmented approach of water resources management in the country, there is a need to complement, coordinate, enhance, strengthen and collaborate all efforts geared towards environmental sustainability and integrated water resources management among national and local governments and the civil society,” they said.
Among other things, the agencies agreed to provide financial and technical support to each other to implement the project.
The City Government will provide the necessary facilities and technical inputs for the planning, operation and management of the Buhisan Eco-Tourism Project, including improvement of access roads and eco-tourism facilities.
It will also promote linkages with appropriate government agencies and provide financial support for alternative livelihood and economic activities for residents in the communities within the watershed. (LCR)
