The offices of Provincial Environment and Natural Resources-Negros Occidental (PENRO) and Community Environment and Natural Resources-Bago City (CENRO) conducted a Key Informant Interview (KII) with the component barangays of Bago River Watershed on May 25-28.
Sixteen out of 32 barangays in Murcia and Bago City have completed the activity, while the remaining barangays will continue in the coming weeks.
The KII targeted at least 35 residents living along the Bago River and its tributaries and hopes to gather data on the community’s adaptive capacity to flooding and soil erosion incidents.
The data will be incorporated in the Integrated Watershed Management Plan which will help policy-makers and the Department formulate regulations, projects and interventions that are both time-sensitive and dynamic.
In his message to the residents of Brgy. Talotog, Murcia, CENR Officer Joan Nathaniel Gerangaya emphasized the necessity to gather accurate information from the participants to eventually craft a sound and effective management plan for the watershed.
Earlier, the city of San Carlos and municipalities of Don Salvador and Calatrava have also conducted KII for Bago River Watershed.
Other component LGUs such as Pulupandan, Valladolid and La Carlota have yet to complete the interview.
Bago River Watershed is one of the 140 major watersheds in the country covering an area of 83,020 and traversing the two protected areas of Mount Kanla-on Natural Park and the Northern Negros Natural Park.*