CORDILLERA lawmakers and another from Cagayan province filed a bill in Congress to ensure protection of the Chico River Basin, one of the major river systems in the Cordillera Region.
Kalinga Congressman Allen Jesse Mangaoang said his fellow Cordillera lawmakers along with Cagayan Cong. Randolph Ting have filed a bill creating the Chico River Basin Development Authority to guarantee the protection and management of the watershed and water system of the Chico River Basin.
Mangaong added the establishment of the Chico River Basin Development Authority aims to provide the needed and focused management and intervention in the development, preservation and sustainability of the Chico River.
It will coordinate and implement properly the programs and projects that will ensure the participation of all the stakeholder, government and non-government groups and individuals.
Originating from its headwaters located in the tri-boundary of Ifugao, Benguet and Mountain Province, Chico River Basin covers areas extending from Mountain Province down to Ifugao, Kalinga, Apayao and drains to the Cagayan River. The Chico River has a total area of 442,906 hectares of which 92 percent or 408,764 hectares falls within the Cordillera and eight percent or 34,141 hectares falls within Cagayan area. It traverses 23 municipalities in CAR with 264 barangays.
According to the DENR-CAR, Chico River Basin has vast potentials for development. Being one of the major river systems in CAR, it has potentials for electric power, irrigation and domestic purposes, recreation, and other varied uses.
The Chico River Forest Reserve was established by virtue of Proclamation No. 573, signed by President Ferdinand E. Marcos on June 26, 1969.
Among the issue and concerns surrounding the watershed include land use conversion to inappropriate uses such as the conversion of mossy forest in Mt. Data to vegetable gardens; decreasing water discharge as a result of drying up of water sources; diminishing biodiversity that may be attributed to anthropogenic activities of man such as kaingin making, illegal cutting, forest fires and chemical pollution; river siltation due to soil erosion and landslides in upstream areas; water pollution attributed to household and industrial wastes from municipalities in Mt Province dumped into the main river or its main tributaries.
Just recently, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources included the Chico River System and the Mount Pulag National Park as priority areas for environmental protection and at the same time improve the lives of the communities in the area through the Sustainable Integrated Area Development Management (SIADM).
DENR-Cordillera regional director Ralph Pablo explained the SIADM is an approach introduced by Sec. Lopez to seek social justice through implementation of environmental protection programs that would increase the rate of growth potentials of communities and primary stakeholders in the selected sites nationwide.
Stakeholders have identified areas within the Chico River Basin as sites to be prioritized in a planning workshop last week.
Meanwhile, Agriculture Secretary Manny Piñol has recommended to national government a serious study for the de-silting and dredging of the Chico River and Cagayan River which caused damages in the province of Kalinga and Cagayan during typhoon Lawin. (Redjie Melvic Cawis/PIA – CAR)