(Eagle News) — The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) would protect and rehabilitate more bodies of water in the country after its successful rehabilitation efforts in Boracay and Manila Bay, according to Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu.
“If we can rehabilitate Boracay and Manila Bay, we can give the same protection to all water bodies in the country by strictly adhering to our annual target and even going beyond it,” Cimatu said.
He reported that for this year, DENR was able to step up its efforts to monitor water and air quality in various parts of the country.
Citing provisions of Republic Act (RA) 9275 or the Philippine Clean Water Act of 2004, the DENR chief said that the department would make sure that all other water bodies in the country are protected.
As of October this year, Cimatu said the DENR was able to monitor 45 priority water bodies and 39 priority recreational water bodies, both representing 100 percent of the annual targets.
One of the important provisions of RA 9275 is the designation of Water Quality Management Areas (WQMAs) using appropriate physiographic units such as watersheds and river basins to effectively enforce the law and improve the quality of water bodies.
This year, the DENR was able to formulate, update and monitor 36 action plans related to the operation of WQMAs.
“We hope that through these action plans, we will be able to come up with new WQMAs in the future for the greater protection and regulation on the development of river systems nationwide,” Cimatu said.
