Settling into the unknown
THERE are times, one imagines that all will have to step into the unknown these days. When such moments come your way, you would think it is madness. You do not know what to make of it pronto, but you have to do something.
If it does happen, can you recall how you came to such a place and state of being?
By the Abra River, along its banks below Botot-Barit in Luba, Abra is where I encountered this feeling Thursday, last week.
After crossing the river, we sat beside a tree while we waited for our companions from the capital town of Bangued. Meantime, in BototBarit, the community awaits our arrival for the turn-over ceremonies of the completed 21 kilometer LubaVillaviciosa farm-to-market road financed through a counterpart fund sharing scheme between the provincial government of Abra and the Second CHARM Project (CHARMP2).
By the Abra River during this time of the year, the water hardly moves along the river’s bed. I recall it was like this when we first engaged the communities here almost a decade past already.
When we first visited, the river has already gone mad. It has stolen fertile farmlands on its river banks, expanding its width more than 100 times to about 300 meters wide. But the area where the water flowed during that summer was about four meters wide.
During the rainy seasons when we visited here, the water can suddenly rise after a few minutes of rain and rampages downstream with silt and uprooted trees, shrubs and plant debris. When a daily downpour is sustained, crossing the river with the mechanized raft operated by the local government unit (LGU) is not possible. The river is deep and the current is swift. Its danger is multiplied even more because of the debris that flow with the current.
Today as we sit here, I watch the seemingly stagnant water held in place by the road dike constructed below it, where we crossed with our pickup. Still, almost the whole width of the river is dry and hot sand, soil, silt, rocks, and gravel.
The condition of the river downstream actually mirrors what happened to the forest and watersheds high-up in the mountains. The madness expressed by the river goes deep and long in time when the trees of the forest were first cut clean by loggers.
When we say, the communities under the cov- erage of our project were marginalized, we meant just that. Back in time, the people in these communities fought for the trees in their forest. Time, machine, money and guns may have weakened their resolve. Ultimately, the trees and the soil, both living treasures continuously migrated to the sea through soil erosion. It still continues today.
The earlier generations in these communities lived in houses made of World War 2 G.I sheets or cogoon and wood. One can yet find houses standing made of these materials. Along the valley bottoms where land remained untouched by the river, the rice fields remain fertile. Throughout the generations those rice fields produced enough.
When we first came here, including the other highland municipalities of Abra, the roads were as wide as “goat roads,” had bumpy and dusty road beds in summer, and muddy and slippery during the rainy season. Those roads could only be traversed by all-terrain vehicles built for warriors who must go anywhere on land. These are the communities assisted by CHARMP2 with rural infrastructure projects, reforestation and watershed projects, livelihood projects, community mobilization and empowerment interventions.
They are now accessible communities, enlivened. But it is not enough. So much needs to be done yet, or they can yet slide back to their original conditions, if not worse. Other government and nongovernment agencies can come in. Add to what has been invested, convert or upgrade the first and second CHARM Project roads which are most provincial or municipal roads into concrete national roads for sustainability purposes.
To sustain community and rural development in these places, the CHARMP2 assisted livelihood and reforestation and agroforestry projects may yet need additional support, if not expanded with best practices upscaled to other communities.
Now more than ever, value chains will have to be enhance to secure affordable and nutritious food supplies; investments will have to be increased to address development needs; creative finance and insurance products will need to be developed and delivered; continue focusing development interventions towards improving nutrition by enabling access to diverse food baskets by our people especially those in the interior communities.
Yes, development agencies must continue sharing new knowledge and information that helps