BY DOMINIQUE GABRIEL BAÑAGA
BACOLOD City –The Sicaba River in Negros Occidental will be rehabilitated through a partnership between sugar producer Victorias Milling Company Inc. (VMC) and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).
The tie-up was sealed through a memorandum of agreement signed by Director Ramar Niel Pascua of the DENR-Environment Management Bureau in Western Visayas, VMC president Minnie Chua, and chief finance officer Kristine Cabuguason.
Sicaba River is a tributary that crosses through Manapla town and Cadiz City.
Chua said this will form part of VMC’s sustainability program.
“Environment protection has been part of our thrust and we welcome this collaboration with DENR and the Municipality of Manapla and Cadiz City,” she said.
Pascua, on the other hand, said this program “emphasizes the significant role of both the public and private sectors and the community in achieving a cleaner, safer and healthier environment.”
Mayor Manuel Escalante of Manapla welcomed the initiative.
“This is one program which I hope residents would embrace and our business partners will fully support,” Escalante said.
A comprehensive program to reduce pollution at the Sicaba River and its minor tributaries will be implemented at a specific segment, identified as the “Pilot Site” that has been agreed upon by all parties.
There is an open agreement as well to possibly extend the site or replicate programs in other portions of the river in the future.
Some of the river rehabilitation measures identified in the program include the regular cleanup of the river, phyto-remediation programs thru constructed wetlands, planting of bamboo and other species along river banks, rip-rapping or coco-matting and construction and greening of linear parks.
DENR will take charge of monitoring industrial and commercial establishments that run along the Sicaba River.
The agency will also assist in establishing Materials Recovery Facilities in concerned barangays; implement and act against violators of the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act and Clean Water Act; and assist in community social preparation and other trainings for leaders and stakeholder groups in the area.
VMC, on the other hand, will take charge of undertaking regular water quality monitoring of the river and its tributaries. It likewise assist DENR in trainings and program implementations and help in community mobilization to support the project./PN
