BORONGAN CITY – The trail to his farm is narrow, the clayey soil is cluttered with spiked limestones that makes the hike an arduous trek, but this does not dampen the spirit of 34-year-old Rudy Alidon.
On a Friday afternoon, Alidon says he has to harvest vegetables to sell at the public market the following morning. Also important to him is to clean the area where a bunch of bamboos have naturally grown. He counts the shoots that have grown during the week and makes sure that no fungus is causing it to rot.
“This will be an additional income for us when the city government starts to buy planting materials,” he said. His village, the far-flung San Gabriel, was earlier identified as a source of planting materials when the city government embarked on a large-scale bamboo planting as a flood mitigation initiative.
Amid all the issues brought about by costly and substandard flood control infrastructure projects, Borongan City turns to natural protection – planting of bamboo to protect the city from occurrence of another major flooding in the future.
Borongan City Mayor Jose van Dayan Agda said the city government has earmarked P28 million for planting and growing of bamboos in four barangays along Lo-om River, the biggest contributor of flooding in the poblacion.
He said the fund comes from a P118.86 million grant that the city received from People’s Survival Fund (PSF) in 2023 to support flood control measures and support reforestation efforts. The grant also covers putting of early warning systems, capacity building, irrigation system and putting a postharvest facility.
Borongan City’s proposal, "Reinforcement of Lo-om River Flood Protection System and Redevelopment for Resilient Communities and Livelihoods," was one of the five projects approved out of 355 applicants in 2023.
“We identified bamboo as the best defense against overflowing of Loom River while at the same time it will provide a sustainable livelihood for the community,” Agda said.
Agda explained that the idea is to plant bamboo on both sides of the river on an over five-kilometer stretch of four barangays. He said that the overflowing of rivers is caused by shallow water due to the massive soil erosion caused by unstable soil conditions along the riverbank.
“Trees especially bamboo store rain water and slows down the drop of water to the ground. Bamboo is also good in stabilizing the soil that will make it less prone to erosion” he said.
Agda said the project will benefit not only the residents along the riverbanks but also over 1,500 households in six flood-prone barangays in the población.
He said the massive flooding brought about by Typhoon Ruby in December 2014 was an eye-opener for the city on its vulnerability to flood and other climate-related hazards.
He said that in terms of damages, typhoon Ruby brought more damage to Borongan City than Typhoon Yolanda that hit in November 2013.
Reports showed that Ruby damaged over P120 million worth of infrastructure and agriculture while Yolanda damage to the city amounted to P36 million. Ruby also affected almost 20,000 families whose houses were either totally or partially damaged.
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