DEMOCRATIC SPACE
Posted by Bulatlat
Groundwater supply contamination is a legitimate and critical environment issue in Rodriguez, Rizal. I was there only last January 29 as part of a group of about 100 SVD priests, seminarians and lay partners who planted 300 plus narra tree seedlings on an eroding and denuded mountain. We did so to do our share in ensuring that the Marikina watershed area will provide ample water supply and have less flooding in many years to come.
The mountain we hiked is near the Wawa Dam and is part of a 135-hectare stewardship area the DENR entrusted to the Mga Anak ng Inang Daigdig (Children of Mother Earth) Foundation headed by Rev. Fr. Ben Beltran, SVD (parish priest in Smokey Mountain, Manila). For 25 years, renewable for another 25 years, we can plant trees there. Provincial Superior Rev. Fr. Nielo Cantilado, SVD led our tree-planting mission there on the feast day of St. Joseph Freinademetz. The seedlings are in memory of the SVD missionaries who died in the Philippines while witnessing to the Word as missionaries these past 100 years.
All the concerned local and national authorities had better make sure that the sanitary landfills in Rodriguez do not become sources of pollutive seepage or else the future water supply of millions of people in Metro Manila and Rizal will be contaminated. The Wawa Dam is expected to provide 50 million liters of water per day. According to the Asian Development Bank (ADB) which gave a US$ 3.26 million loan to the MWSS for the development of new water sources, the Wawa Dam will supply the towns of Rodriguez and San Mateo whose residents, mostly urban poor, source their water mainly from deep wells.
Earl Victor L. Rosero
Communications Ministry Coordinator
Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish – Kamuning
141 Scout Ybardolaza St., Quezon City
sacredheart_kamuning@yahoo.com
kevlar49171@yahoo.com
