ILOILO City – Following the flashfloods brought by typhoon “Ursula” in northern Iloilo, the city government here vowed to help in the reforestation program of the provincial government of Iloilo.
“We are ready to support the provincial government for the reforestation of our watershed kag sa aton mga kabukiran. We are ready to offer our own manpower and whatever resources available,” said Mayor Jerry Treñas.
The main source of Iloilo City’s water is the watershed in Maasin, Iloilo.
Gov. Arthur Defensor Jr. said the recent massive flooding was due to the denudation of the province’s mountains.
“We don’t want what happened during typhoon ‘Ursula’ to happen again,” said Treñas.
The city government has a tree planting program, too. Treñas wants to regreen the metropolis.
Treñas recently instructed City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office head Donna Magno to coordinate with Iloilo towns devastated by “Ursula” for financial assistance.
According to the city mayor, he is initially thinking of giving P50,000 to P100,000 for the affected towns.
“Isa sa mga teorya naton nga isa sa nag-amot sang pagdasig sang panaog sang tubig amo ang wala na sang sponge sa ibabaw sang aton bukid,” Defensor said. “Ang mga kahoy sa bukid serve as sponge kay pagtupa sang ulan it will delay instead of rushing down.”
According to Defensor, the denudation of mountains in northern Iloilo was primarily due to unabated cutting of trees and massive corn plantations.
“Of course that is a fact, pero whether nga isa na sia sang rason sang pagbaha; naga-speculate kita unless lang if there’s a way for me to say scientifically nga amo gid man na ina pero commonsense would tell you nga posible isa sina sa rason kon ngaa kay ti kon wala unod ang bukid wala sia sang sponge – dasig manaog ang tubig,” Defensor explained.
One the northern municipalities that experienced Ursula’s wrath was the town of Balasan. All its 23 barangays got flooded, according to Chinky Diolosa, Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office officer.
Not even super typhoon “Yolanda” in November 2013 was able to do this, said Diolasa./PN
