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Body formed to address Chico River pollution
By Dexter A. See

BONTOC Mountain Province – The Cordillera Regional Development Council here created a task force to address the worsening pollution along the Chico river, which strands this landlocked province to Kalinga and Cagayan provinces, from unabated disposal of garbage, liquid and solid wastes along the river.

The RDC said pollution posed a risk to the health, well-being and livelihood of downstream communities and water users.

The Chico River has been identified as one of the major river systems in the Cordillera that provides sufficient water resources for electric power generation, agriculture, domestic water, ecotourism, fishery and recreation.

The super body tasked to coordinate activities to prevent the eventual pollution of the Chico river will imposed of representatives from the regional offices of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Environmental Management Bureau, Department of Public Works and Highways, Department of Interior and Local Government, National Commission on Indigenous Peoples and local government units of Mountain Province and Kalinga.

The task force shall ensure complimentary and concerted actions of government agencies, local governments and other stakeholders in addressing the problem of garbage and waste disposal along the Chico river and oversee the effective implementation of activities that would ensure the proper disposal of garbage, liquid and solid wastes of communities and households and prevent the eventual pollution of the river, popularly being used by foreigners for the famous white-water rafting activities.

Earlier, the province of Kalinga has expressed grave concern on the massive pollution of the Chico River through Resolutions No. 2009-035, 2009-045, 2008-477, 2008-478 and 2005-123 of the provincial board which were eventually endorsed to the RDC-CAR for appropriate action.

The Kalinga provincial government has established a provincial monitoring team headed by boardmember Fernando M. Abay and composed of representatives from the DENR office in Kalinga and the local government units concerned which conducted an inspection of the Chico river recently and met with provincial officials of Mountain province and the municipal officials of this capital town regarding the alarming state of pollution along the river connecting the two provinces.

On the other hand, the EMB-CAR also conducted dialogues and consultations with officials of Mountain province on the establishment of materials recovery facilities (MRFs), sanitary landfill sites and the conduct of a massive information and education campaign activities on solid waste management for communities along the Chico river to ensure that wastes will not be willfully dumped in the waters which results to pollution.

The RDC asserted the complimentary and concerted action of government agencies, local governments and other stakeholders is required to ensure a comprehensive and sustainable solution to the garbage and waste disposal problem along the Chico River.

For their part, Bontoc municipal officials disclosed they are implementing strict solid waste management practices to prevent residents from dumping their solid and liquid wastes along the Chico River to protect it from eventual death due to pollution.