CITY OF MALOLOS, Bulacan — Environmentalists, mountaineers and nature lovers have appealed to President Rodrigo Duterte to take a look at the critical condition that deforestations have caused on Bulacan watersheds, the main source of drinking water supply of the millions of residents of Metro Manila.
Officials and members of the Sagip Sierra Madre Environmentalists Society Inc., UP Mountaineers, and other environmental groups on Wednesday said that they have delivered a letter to President Rodrigo Duterte informing him about the grave state of Ipo watershed.
The groups said the letter contained documentation on the activities inside the watersheds.
“We are hopeful that the letter, together with evidences, interviews and accounts, moves our President to initiate a war on deforestation and against all environmental criminals,” they said.
The groups claimed that unscrupulous activities such as illegal logging, timber poaching, charcoal making and slash and burn farming are daily occurrences in the watersheds of Ipo and Angat.
Bro. Martin Francisco, founding chairman of the Sagip Sierra Madre Environment Society Inc., said the five anti-illegal logging operations conducted this year inside the Angat watershed have led to the confiscations of several board feet of illegally cut lumber and chain saws.
The environmentalists said that illegal logging operations and other deforestation activities cause creeks and streams to dry up, soil erosion and siltation, create landslides, affect irrigation systems and ultimately reduce the water supply from Angat-Ipo River Systems that could eventually impact on the water supply of Metro Manila. (Manny Balbin/PNA)
