The Davao City Agriculturist Office continues to accept requests from farmers as it targets to establish 1,000 rainwater catchments in the city.
Assistant City Agriculturist Edgardo Haspe, in an interview during the At Your Service program of 87.5 FM Davao City Disaster Radio (DCDR) program on Tuesday, April 12, 2022, said: “Duha ang purpose aning rainwater catchment. Una, ang ma-mitigate ang impact sa pagbaha kay gamay nalang tubig ang modagayday sa mga river channels, at the same time duna’y source sa tubig sa panahon sa tig-init (There are two purposes of the rainwater catchment. First is to mitigate the impact of flooding as only limited rainwater will flow through river channels and at the same time, there will be a source of water during the dry season).”
The city, according to him, already put up over 150 rainwater catchments in Marilog District. Each rainwater catchment can catch about 200 cubic meters of rainwater, which help prevent flooding of river channels.
He also said that some of the rainwater catchments, placed in strategic areas, were also used as fish ponds where farmers grow tilapia and catfish.
“Kung taas-taas duna’y pondong tubig, pwede sya magamit as fish pond and source of water sa panahon sa tig-init. Mga 32 percent sa rainwater catchments duna’y sulod semiliya sa tilapia ug hito. Libre man sya sa gobyerno, shouldered by the government (If water stored in the catchments has high levels, it can be utilized as a fish pond and a source of water during hot weather. At least 32 percent of the established rainwater catchments by the city have tilapia and catfish fingerlings. The fingerlings are free and shouldered by the government),” he said.
Haspe added that the city’s agricultural engineers validate possible land areas to determine that these are viable to be made into rainwater catchments, which usually measure 10X15 meters of land each.
The City Agriculturist Office has been receiving requests from farmers to also build rainwater catchments in their farms but Haspe said that since the backhoe is currently in Barangay Bantol in Marilog District, they will first cater to those who are just within the vicinity. He said it would be difficult to transfer the backhoe from one place to another so if there are requests in Bantol, they will accommodate the farmers in that barangay before transferring the equipment to another barangay.
Once another backhoe is available, it will be sent to Paquibato District where they expect to make some 500 rainwater catchments. This would make their 1,000 target rainwater catchments feasible even with the backhoe already being used in Marilog District.
Haspe also said farmers can request rainwater catchments from their office but a barangay resolution is required, the requesting party must show proof that he or she owns the land to be used as a rainwater catchment, and secure approval from the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) for lands within the ancestral domain of the indigenous people (IP). CIO
