Committee hearing set soon on desiltation of protected rivers

THE committee on environment will soon conduct a committee hearing to create a policy to allow desiltation of areas in protected rivers in Davao City.

Councilor Leo Avila III, speaking on Tuesday’s Pulong-pulong ni Pulong, said that this policy will be made in order to answer the problems of the barangay captains “on the very silted rivers”.

“We will create a policy that will allow de-siltation of areas in rivers that are considered protected kay ang nahitabo man gud ang atong (because what happened is that our) ordinance says “no quarrying in areas that are considered conservation areas” so mao tong silted kaayo (that is why it has been very silted),” Avila said.

“The solution there is de-siltation, it’s not quarrying but you are desilting it,” he added.

Avila said that they will also propose for the barangays to lead the desiltation and will just provide materials that they can use for it.

The policy, according to him, will also allow private companies with backhoes to help remove the silt and get the 50% of it for their use which will be for free.

“Wala siya gibaligya (silt) kay quarrying naman na (It was not sold because it will be considered quarrying),” he said.

Avila said that they have already identified specific rivers but failed to elaborate them.

He also said that the City Environment and Natural Resources Office (Cenro) had already conducted a study during the time of former Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio on how

silted the rivers were.

“There was a proposal for the city to purchase an equipment for de-siltation pero medyo mahal jud to and naabtan man sa end of term niya (Mayor Sara) so wala to siya nahuman (but it was quite expensive and we also reached the end of her term that’s why it was not done),” Avila said. KGL