Protecting, conserving watersheds
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Davao Region’s celebration of World Wetlands Day last February 2 brought to the attention of its personnel the importance of continuing the effort to protect and conserve our watersheds. I had the opportunity to witness the celebration that took place in one of Davao City’s precious wetlands in the Malagos reservation.
The event made us realize that many among of our compatriots (including me) do ignore largely, or if not are taking for granted, the most vital resource we have: water. Our reactions when confronted with water shortage or interruptions is always one of impatience and even irritation and anger. We easily blame it on our main water provider, the water district, that has for years provided us one of the “best waters” in the world in terms of quality.
Often, we fail to recognize our role and responsibility in ensuring that this God-given gift continues to flow for us and for the next generations. We do not appreciate how the people tasked to ensure that our drinking water reaches us in good quality are doing extra effort to make this so because we are only concerned with our daily supply.
We do not see that they have to work and be vigilant 24 hours each day to provide us with quality water, and that we always view in a simplistic manner their efforts at maintaining, protecting and preserving our water sources.
For instance, it is farthest in our minds that the quality of the water that we drink right from the taps of our faucets at home has gone through stringent filtration processes and quality control that far exceeds the one being done by bottled mineral water providers. We take for granted that we are paying less for the water flowing from our faucets than the ones that are bottled.
According to Ms. Hydie Maspinas, manager of the Water Quality Division of DCWD, we are drinking quality water now because 50 years ago there was no pollutants yet, but we cannot assure the next generation in the next 50 years with the same quality anymore considering the kind of developments going on today that are endangering our environment in general.
It is a challenge for everybody, she said, to really take care of our water supply, and yet, people seem to be unaffected by this. We cannot be complacent just because we consider ourselves only as consumers. We must also be proactive and vigilant with regards to the protection and conservation of this one vital resource that we are losing fast.
The need to understand the state of our wetlands in Davao City and in the world and how we can each contribute to the preservation and conservation of this water source is foremost for our own survival. We need to care enough for the welfare of our future generation and it must be now as our world is facing extinction and our survival endangered.-- from SunStar Davao
It is a challenge for everybody, she said, to really take care of our water supply, and yet, people seem to be unaffected by this