People fall in love with Baguio City for many reasons. One of those is its lush tree-filled landscape that provides places of adventure, relaxation, and peace. However, it is no secret that Baguio’s forests have quickly dwindled over the decades due to rapid urbanization and overdevelopment. Unfortunately, plenty of these green spaces that have been affected are watersheds.
Baguio City’s watersheds are its ecological lifeline. They’re the city’s main source of clean water. Aside from that, watersheds also play a huge part in protecting the city from climate change and natural disasters. They’re responsible for carbon storage that helps decrease the amount of carbon that enters the atmosphere.
Then, they also provide erosion control and flood control which help prevent landslides. As of now, Baguio has 8 watersheds—Buyog watershed, Busol watershed, Camp 8 watershed, Lucnab watershed, Forest Park 1,2, and 3, Pucsusan watershed, Guisad-Surong watershed, and Puliwes watershed. These areas are currently one of the city government’s priorities in protecting and rehabilitating.
One of the programs helping in protecting Baguio City’s watersheds is the “Adopt-A-Watershed” program. It aims to preserve these places through regreening and prevention activities in partnership with government and non-government organizations, civic organizations, and schools. Some of the activities to be done are tree planting, cleaning, clearing, nurturing, and assistance in preventing illegal logging, forest fires, squatting, and kaingin.
According to the Philippine News Agency, a total of 40 groups have signed on to “adopt” one of the watersheds. However, the responsibility of preserving Baguio’s watersheds also extends to everyone else in the city. One of the simplest things we can do to help is to conserve water. Simple things like taking shorter showers, fixing leaks, and turning the water off when it’s not being used goes a long way.
Another thing we can do is to dispose of our garbage properly. They should be going to proper waste disposal areas rather than the drains and sewers. And last but definitely not least, we can do the service of being conscious of our everyday choices and actions. Just by those, we can do our part in protecting, preserving, and rehabilitating Baguio City’s watersheds and keep clean water flowing into our homes for many years to come.