The Watershed Management Council conducted its fourth Information Education Campaign in Barangay Inayangan, Calinan District on July 29, 2024.
During the IEC, barangay functionaries and tribal leaders of the Bagobo Klata tribe were given a lecture about the importance of watersheds and the risk of not taking care of them, the dos and donts in critical watershed areas, and also the allowable uses of the current zones in the barangay.
Atty. Karmela Tongo, WMC Secretariat, discussed the existing Ordinance No. 0310-07, commonly known as the Watershed Protection, Conservation, and Management Ordinance or the Watershed Code.
She highlighted the importance of the role of barangays in the protection of the watershed especially through its Barangay Watershed Management Council and in ensuring an abundant and clean source of water, especially since surface water is being utilized now in the city.
She added that barangays that are targets of the IEC are those within conservation areas.
“Ang Barangay Inayangan classified siya as critical watershed zone so gina-recognize sa WMC nga ang protection mag-initiate gyud sa community (Barangay Inayangan is classified as an area with a critical watershed zone so the WMC recognizes that the protection should be initiate in the community),” Tongo said.
City Planning and Development Office representative Charles Tumalip explained that Barangay Inayangan has two zones: the Critical Watershed Zone and the Production Agriculture Zone.
Under the Critical Watershed Zone based on the City Land Use Plan 2019-2028, the allowable uses of land are reforestation and non-permanent early warning facilities/structures.
In a Critical Watershed Zone, the building density and bulk regulations provide that no permanent structures/buildings are allowed. The development applications in the area must be validated by DENR/PAMB regulations and should be in accordance with the Co-management Agreement or Memorandum of Agreement. The ordinance also provides that the introduction of any development in the area must have a favorable endorsement from the Watershed Management Code Council, in accordance with the Watershed Code of Davao City.
A speaker from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources Office-Cenro highlighted the importance of the Watershed or Tubig-Saluran, the degradation of which can have damaging impacts such as loss of water supply, loss of biodiversity, and increased risk of calamities, among others.
Tongo said that there are still several barangays that are not aware of the creation of Barangay Watershed Management Council within their barangays as mandated by the Watershed Code and that they have critical watershed areas.
The IEC of the WMC will be conducted in two more barangays this year. CIO