Posted on February 2, 2021
LAL-LO, Cagayan: The World Wetlands Day will highlight the launching of the Cagayan River Rehabilitation (CRR) project with 185 bamboo propagules to be planted in the 925-meter stretch of Cagayan riverbank along Barangay Bangag here, according to the Build Back Better (BBB) Task Force in Region 2 (Cagayan Valley). Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Region 2 Executive Director Gwendolyn Bambalan said the project will kick off here in time with the celebration of the 25th World Wetlands Day on February 2. The BBB Task Force has identified a total of 19 sandbars through the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) that need dredging as these obstruct the floodwater flow to the Aparri Delta and to the Babuyan Channel as its final destination. The sandbars in Barangay Bangag in Lal-lo town and Barangay Casicallan Norte and Dummun in Gattaran town, covering a total of 275 hectares with an estimated volume of seven million cubic meters, are the priority sites for immediate dredging. Bambalan said the launching will be led by DENR Secretary Roy Cimatu and DPWH Secretary Mark Villar through a ceremonial dredging of the sandbar along the Magapit Narrows and bamboo planting. Cimatu and Villar, BBB Task Force chairman and co-chairman, respectively, will be joined by Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello 3rd and Armed Forces of the Philippines Chief of Staff Gen. Gilbert Gapay. “This is a whole-of-government at its best with the support from almost all national agencies and the Cagayan provincial government,” Cimatu said in an earlier task force meeting. Meanwhile, this town’s mayor Florence Oliver Pascual has assured the DENR and the DPWH of the full support of the local government of Lal-lo to the rehabilitation program.
Source: manilatimes
