House panel OKs bill protecting Cebu‘s water supply

The House committee on natural resources has approved a bill seeking to preserve and sustain Metro Cebu’s water supply through the creation of a special board that will manage crucially important "protected areas."

Under House Bill 3624, authored by Cebu Rep. Eduardo Gullas, a management board shall be established to look after the five protected areas — the Buhisan watershed, the Mananga and Kotkot-Lusaran forest reserves, and the Central Cebu and Sudlon national parks.

These protected areas are deemed vital to ensuring sustainable water supply for Metro Cebu, which covers the cities of Cebu, Talisay, Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu and the towns of Minglanilla, Consolacion, Liloan, Compostela and Cordova.

The uncertainty of Metro Cebu’s water supply has been extensively discussed in a series of multisectoral meetings initiated by Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal.

At one point, Cebu officials contemplated importing water from Bohol.

"When I was Cebu governor, saltwater intrusion was still only in downtown Cebu City. Now it has reached all the way up to the (provincial) Capitol site, near the foot of the city’s hills," Gullas lamented.

Under Gullas’ bill, also known as the proposed Central Cebu Protected Landscape Act, a special fund shall be put up to support protective and management measures.

An initial P75 million in new funding shall also be earmarked, with P15 million going to each of the five protected areas.

The chief executives and congressional district representatives of the four cities and five towns shall sit as management board members.

The Department of Justice shall be required to designate a special prosecutor that will handle all cases involving the preservation of the protected areas.

Gullas, meanwhile, assured communities living around the protected areas that they would not be adversely affected once the bill is enacted.

"All that will be asked of them is that they rigorously police their ranks in order to help preserve the protected areas," he said.

Incidentally, one of the protected areas, the Central Cebu national park, is home to 2,120 plant varieties and 707 species of fauna, some of which are not found elsewhere and are being threatened.

A portion of the park was previously identified as one of the world’s ecological hot spots.