ANTIPOLO CITY, Rizal (PIA) – The national government is setting its sights on implementing long term solutions to frequent flooding especially in Rizal province which suffered the brunt of heavy rains dumped by typhoon Enteng.
President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. presided a situation briefing at the Rizal provincial capitol on Friday, Sept. 6 where local and national officials presented flood mitigation programs.
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) will plant three million trees across 4,000 hectares of land in Rizal Province as part of its reforestation efforts to mitigate flooding caused by typhoons and other calamities.
Alongside the reforestation plan, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) is also preparing a feasibility study for the construction of three additional dams in the northern part of the Wawa Dam area as part of the government’s flood control program.
The DPWH will also repair the drainage system traversing the towns of Teresa and Morong and construct a spillway leading to the Morong River.
President Marcos urged the DENR to work closely with the local government to ensure proper implementation once the program is rolled out.
The President added: “You have to work with locals because sometimes where it is placed is not where it is needed. Please coordinate with locals. There is nothing like local knowledge as they live with this every day.”
Environment Secretary Maria Anthonia Yulo Loyzaga stated that 85 percent of the Upper Marikina Protected Landscape remains covered with forest and vegetation.
“What we want to do now in the vegetated area is to introduce around three million trees, which we will work on with the provincial government, the academe, NGOs, and the DPWH as part of this targeted reforestation program for the Upper Marikina Protected Landscape,” Loyzaga said.
Declared a protected area in 2018, the Upper Marikina Protected Landscape is a 26,126-hectare basin covering the city of Antipolo and the municipalities of Baras, Rodriguez, San Mateo, and Tanay.
“We’ve conducted a quick and intensive review of the flooding dynamics in this area, as there have been many requests for an analysis,” Loyzaga added.
Loyzaga also highlighted previous and ongoing projects aimed at addressing climate change and natural disasters in the province, such as Project TRANSFORM, which provides a scientific and strategic mechanism for achieving environmental sustainability and resilience. (CO/PIA4A)
