Japan approves P300-M grant for watershed project

CABANATUAN CITY – The government of Japan has approved the grant of a P300-million forestry sector loan to finance the rehabilitation of the Carranglan-Pantabangan watershed in Nueva Ecija, a top official of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) said.

Rafael Otic, DENR provincial environment and natural resources officer (PENRO) for Nueva Ecija, told The STAR that the 10-year program has been approved by the govern-ment of Japan and will be financed by the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC).

The loan was negotiated during the time of then-DENR Secretary Heherson Alvarez and the Foreign Assisted Project Office (FAPO) and the National Forestation Development Office (NFDO) under director Gualberto Tortoza.

Otic said the project cost is $10 million per sub-watershed and will cover six sub-watersheds.

He said project implementation will be undertaken in several phases starting in the last quarter of this year. It will involve rehabilitation such as planting of trees in the watershed, protection, management and maintenance of the watershed area.

The watershed area encompasses baran-gays Gen. Luna, Burgos and Bunga in Car-ranglan and Marikit, Conversion, San Juan, Dilakay and Napon-napon in Pantabangan.

Otic said a "watershed characterization" was undertaken by the JBIC last year covering the 96,501 hectares of the watershed reservation area where data was updated for the preparation of a watershed management and development plan to serve as benchmark of information in the assessment of the present state of the watershed.

The DENR is tapping the services of upland farmers, including Igorots, for the implemen-tation of the community-based project.

Watersheds constitute around 755 of the country’s total land area. Based on statistics from University of the Philippines (UP) researchers, the country has 119 proclaimed and 154 priority watersheds covering a total land area of 1.4 million hectares and 11.69 million hectares, respectively. Proclaimed watersheds have land areas ranging from 20 to 180,460 hectares while priority watersheds range from 365 to 837,149 hectares.

Watersheds provide vital resources such as soil, water, forest range, wildlife and minerals. Water provided by watersheds is used in power generation, agriculture, industry, potable water among others.

However, many of the watersheds have been denuded as a result of logging, kaingin (slash-and-burn farming), and overgrazing, triggering accelerated soil erosion and flash floods.

Otic said the rehabilitation program for the Carranglan-Pantabangan watershed is crucial considering that it is the main source of water for the Pantabangan Dam which provides irrigation to 102,000 hectares of farmlands in Nueva Ecija, Pampanga and Bulacan.

"Since it is a main water source, the rehabilitation of the watershed will augment the flow of water to Pantabangan Dam and will thus, benefit local farmers a lot," he said.