Group hopes to help solve Marikina flooding through reforestation project

Nov 27, 2020 8:51:08 AM

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 27) — An environmental and performing arts group has started a reforestation project in Marikina to help mitigate floods in the city still reeling from the devastation caused by Typhoon Ulysses.

Fr. Benigno P. Beltran, founder of ‘Mga Anak ni Inang Daigdig,’ said Friday their organization together with foresters and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources or DENR are planting different types of bamboo along the banks of Marikina and its tributaries along the Marikina Watershed.

“We are planting now but our seedlings were washed away so we are rehabilitating our seedling nursery. DENR also gave me 600 hectares to reforest with bamboo and plant other things there,” Beltran told CNN Philippines’ New Day.

Fr. Beltran broke the news about their project last week in a Facebook post — an initiative lauded by people online amid renewed calls to rehabilitate the Marikina watershed after Ulysses battered Marikina. 

“Where does all this water come from? It comes from Sierra Madre. It has been denuded. Erosion has washed out all the silt. The silt comes from Sierra Madre, so if you do not replant in and reforest Sierra Madre and Marikina watershed, you prepare yourself for even deeper flooding and more houses submerged and more people dying,” Fr. Beltran added.

Experts have said that with the bamboo’s strong and massive root system, it is effective in controlling soil erosion and stabilizing riverbanks.

Beltran said bamboo planting solves erosion and flooding, mitigates climate change, gives jobs to people. He said he hopes that in one or two years, they will be able to produce engineered bamboo, a replacement for wood.

SOURCE: https://cnnphilippines.com/news/2020/11/27/Marikina-bamboo-planting.html