A lawmaker will pass an ordinance that will help in the preservation and protection of the city’s riverbanks.
“That is one of the proposed ordinances we are going to draft to come up with the Davao River Management Council,” Councilor Pilar Braga said during the regular session on Tuesday.
The proposed ordinance will implement rules on how to manage the riverbanks and enhance the cleanliness and preservation of the areas where they are located.
“This ordinance is proposed so we can pay attention to our riverbanks. They have to be managed,” she said.
She also added that the ordinance has to be certified urgent in light of the recent report that the waterways of Davao City have been found positive of poliovirus.
“If we don’t take care of our riverbanks, you can just imagine the disease that will be borne out of it,” she said.
The proposal also came after the report of 150 trees being cut near Ma-a riverbanks for the drainage project of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) reached the city council.
“With the recent incident where the DPWH contractors cut the trees along the riverbanks, our attention was called and saw what they did. It broke our hearts upon seeing the situation. It is so hard to plant the trees and it will take years to grow up, and then, here they are they just cut it without thinking,” she said.
She also said that cutting trees along riverbanks may trigger massive flashfloods that will endanger low-lying communities.
“If the riverbanks are not taken care of, soon enough we will suffer from heavy floods. So you see there are really consequences. There is an importance of taking care of our riverbanks,” she said.
“So what kind of protection must we put in there, what kind of beautification needed, what kind of conservation that we should put into our riverbanks – It should be figured out. We should be vigilant with the situation of our riverbanks,” she said.
