BAGUIO CITY – Environment Secretary Ramon Paje assured city officials that the agency earmarked some P17 million from its existing budget to help complete the required P34 million funding requirement for the completion of the 112-hectare Baguio portion of the Busol watershed, the main source of potable water of some 40 percent of the city’s populace.
Paje committed the funding support to Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan and former DENR-CAR regional executive director Paquito Moreno during his recent visit to the Summer Capital to assess the implementation of environmental preservation and protection programs being undertaken by concerned government agencies and local governments.
Paje ordered concerned DENR personnel to download the available funding to the city government so that it would be the local government unit that will implement the fencing of the Busol watershed to protect the critical watershed from further encroachments by informal settlers and the subsequent deterioration of the state of the main source of potable water of the city.
Busol watershed has a total land area of 336 hectares with 224 hectares within the jurisdiction of the capital town of La Trinidad, Benguet and 112 hectares within the jurisdiction of the city.
Domogan welcomed Secretary Paje’s decision to download the funds to the city government, saying that the additional funds from the agency will definitely help in completing the required funding to complete the fencing of the Busol watershed the soonest.
“We are elated that Secretary Paje saw the importance of immediately fencing the metes and bounds of the watershed to protect it from further encroachments that would significantly affect its state in the future once informal settlers will freely build their structures in the area,” Domogan stressed.
Earlier, the Baguio Water District (BWD) set aside some P3.5 million to initially start the fencing of the watershed while the city government committed P10 million from its 2014 supplemental budget to pursue the noble project.
At the same time, the Baguio Regreening Movement (BRM) will conduct its own fund raising activity in order to contribute in raising the required funding support to complete the Busol fencing project within the year to prevent the expansion of commercial vegetable gardens and the unabated cutting of trees in the Baguio side of the watershed.
Domogan expressed the gratitude of the city government to Secretary Paje for his timely action in ordering the release of substantial funding support to pursue the preservation and protection of remaining forested portions of the Busol watershed in order to sustain the city’s main source of potable water supply for the present and future generations of city residents.
He cited as soon as the funds from the DENR will be downloaded to the city government as committed by Secretary Paje, the city will immediately convene the Busol takes force in order to work out the continuation of the fencing project to block off informal settlers from intruding into the portions of the watershed that are within the city’s jurisdiction and maintain its forest cover that adds up to the city’s water supply, especially during the summer months.
He said the city government will also pursue the demolition of illegal structures that were built within the watershed after the Supreme Court (SC) ruled in favour of the city for the removal of the illegal structures.
