Waterways must not be used for human settlements – Gozon

GOVERNMENT CENTER, Palo, Leyte – The government does not need any law to ensure that critical areas such as creeks and riverbanks must not be resided by humans as this might cause clogging of waterways that would result to flooding. This was according to Presidential Assistant for Climate Change Secretary Elisea “Bebet” Gozun during her talk for “Greening the Environment Forum” initiated by the Bureau of Internal Revenue District XIV. It is the first time that a government agency that has nothing to do with the environment initiated a forum on climate change reason why Gozun commended the administration of BIR-8 Regional Director Diosdado Mendoza for exerting effort to make his personnel be aware on what to do to mitigation effects of climate change. Sec. Gozun stressed that as a general rule, waterways must not be used for human settlement as they are consider as critical areas especially if they are located in lowlands areas that could result to become catch basin during rainy days. “Local government unit’s officials must have political will in addressing this problem,” Gozun stressed. During her stint as Secretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in 2003, Gozun said that they had distributed copy of maps and uploaded maps in the website of DENR containing information of areas in each LGU where are those considered are disaster or risk prone areas are located for LGU officials to make them as reference in planning where to put human settlement and their land use planning. “However, this was not taken seriously by local government officials or they did not mind it at all, reason why we are experiencing problems when disaster strikes,” Gozun stressed. She added that geo-hazard maps should not be kept secret to their residents as these are vital information that can be used in saving lives before calamities and disaster strikes. “It should be distributed and used for education and information dissemination,” said Gozun. Moreover, Gozun added that people should also be aware and make their contribution in mitigating effects of disasters and calamities by ensuring to live in safe place. She cited the incident that had happened in Cagayan de Oro after a flashflood wiped-out an entire community located in an island that was a result of siltation. “They were not supposed to live there but still the LGU allowed them to make that area as alienable place even if it was already declared as a danger or hazard zone,” Gozun said. She added that when times like those what had happened in Cagayan de Oro occur it should not only be the local government units that needs to be blamed but also people who take a risk to reside in hazard prone areas even if it will cost their lives.