Mother Nature’s warning! Rains Don’t Cause Floods; Let’s Plant Trees, or Else…

Yesterday, logs which were swept down by floodwaters from the foot of Mt. Apo damaged the bridge along the Davao-Cotabato Highway affecting the movement of goods.

Those who say that the rains caused the flooding are completely missing the point.

We have had very strong rains in the past back in the days when I was still a young boy and the rivers swelled but there was none of the uncontrollable surge of murky and mud-colored waters which brought along logs.

These floods, which are occurring with greater frequency lately, are grim warnings by Mother Nature that we have to take a serious look at the state of our mountains and forests.

The recent floods came two days after I issued instructions to Undersecretary Janet Lopoz of the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) to submit a proposal to our development partners for funds to conduct an updated satellite map on the state of the forest cover of Mindanao.

The map that I have in mind would also generate satellite images of all the watersheds, rivers, creeks and gulleys in the main island and the other islands comprising the region.

At this time in the life of our nation, we have to come up with a National Water Management and Conservation Program, a much-talked about idea but hardly given any serious effort or funding.

We are a country of ironies. While we suffer from floods and we are battered by dozens of typhoons every year, a three-month dry spell causes great damage to Philippine Agriculture.

Over a century after our independence, we have not realized as a nation that one of our greatest resources is water, a natural resource which modern agriculturally-advanced nations like Israel could only dream of.

The Mindanao Watershed and Water Resource Maps is MinDA’s contribution to the advocacy to implement once and for all a science-based water management and water conservation program.

It would focus on three areas:

1. A serious community or family-based reforestation program with economic benefits accruing to the stakeholders;

2. A legislative measure which would criminalize and impose severe punishment to those who enter or poach in critical watershed areas;

3. A national program fully-funded which would establish water catchments, small dams, levees and dikes to retain water during the rainy months.

The effects of these programs would ensure food security for the country because heavily-silted floodwaters which go to the coastal areas damage the corals and destroy the fishing grounds while sufficient water supply would result in sustainable agriculture.

The situation that we have now is really bad and alarming but it is not too late yet.

Action or inaction on this issue could spell the difference between the survival and devastation of our nation.

#GovernanceIsCommonSense!

#KungGustoMaramingParaan!

#ConserveWaterNow!

#SafeguardRemainingForest!

(The first three photos were taken in Bunawan, Agusan del Sur when waters of the mighty Agusan River inundated the agricultural areas for 3 months while the three other photos showing the floods in Makilala, Cotabato were downloaded from a Facebook page.)