WHILE the state of the rivers in Davao City is not as bad as the others, it does not mean that we should not take care of it.
Though no data or information has been officially released on the current state of the Davao River, we can say that one way or another it is not as clean as it was before. If the plane you are on is about to land Davao City and happens to pass by the Davao River, you will notice how brown the water is coming from the Davao River flowing into the Davao Gulf.
Therefore it was a timely reminder when Department of Environment and Natureal Resources Secretary Roy Cimatu warned regional directors and personnel of the department that they might be lose their jobs if they fail to clean up the river systems in their area.
“I am directing these regional directors to make sure that all rivers in their area will be cleaned. To those personnel who are negligent in their rivers, I will look for people who are better than them to replace them,” Cimatu said in his speech before participants of the 4th International River Summit in Cebu Thursday, November 22.
At present we can observe that there are efforts being made to promote development in the city but lack efforts to conserve the environment, which is evident with the current state of the coastal areas in the city; the amount of quarrying in the city; and lack of trees and green spaces in the city. Currently there are 63 quarry applications pending with the city council.
The DENR together with the local government unit (LGU) must step up its efforts to take care of the rivers in the city. It should not wait for it to reach its worse state before it starts cleaning it up.
Efforts to take care of the rivers should start as early as now while it can still be saved from further damages.
The DENR and the LGU could probably partner or empower riverside communities on how to take care of the rivers.
Let us not wait for things to worsen before we do something.