BAGUIO CITY – Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan reiterated the local government remains steadfast in the implementation of the various green governance programs to boost efforts to preserve and protect the state of the city’s environment.
The local chief executive pointed out green governance is a major flagship program of the present administration to guarantee the improved state of the city’s environment through various interventions with the active participation of stakeholders.
“We have to sustain the aggressive implementation of our green governance initiatives already in place to strike a balance on the need for the city to be developed and the efforts to sustain the good condition of the environment, especially providing clean water for the people, clean air to breathe and the proper disposal of garbage, that will help in maintaining the city’s clean and green status,” Domogan stressed.
He emphasized that maintaining the city’s good air quality is one priority program of the local government following Baguio’s inclusion as one of the 5 cities in Southeast Asia pilot testing the Clean Cities Asia certification to help lower the pollutants in the city’s air.
To maintain clean water, he claimed the Salaknib ti Waig program, a multi-stakeholder program, has been strengthened with the active participation of the private sector to ensure that the city’s major river systems and their tributaries are cleared from pollution caused by man-made activities in the different barangays, not only of the city, but also in neighboring towns of Benguet.
For the city’s solid waste management program, Domogan reported the city is pursing the implementation of its integrated solid waste disposal facility within a portion of the Antamok open pit area owned by the Benguet Corporation to end the expensive hauling of the city’s residual waste to the Urdaneta landfill and for the city to benefit from the renewable energy to be produced from the city’s garbage.
According to him, the local government also remains aggressive in the implementation of regreening projects in the different watershed areas in the city to help increase the forest cover of forest reservations that will translate to improved ground water and stability of the city’s water supply, especially during the dry months where residents living in elevated areas have a difficulty of accessing water supply from the Baguio Water District (BWD).
Domogan rallied the private sector to continue extending the needed assistance to the local government in the implementation of sustainable environmental preservation and protection projects in the different parts of the city to enable the city to maintain or even improve its pristine environment and cool and romantic weather, the primary reason why foreign and domestic tourists continue to flock to the city.
It can be recalled that Baguio was a Hall of Fame awardee in the Search for Clean and Green local governments highly urbanized cities category in 1995.
By Dexter A. See
