POLICY BRIEF
ISSN 2467-5571 (Online) Issue No. 2015 - 0002
JUNE 2015
MINDANAO CRITICAL RIVERS RAPID ASSESSMENT RATIONALE
INTRODUCTION
This study (1) characterizes qualitatively and quantitatively the socio-economic, geomorphologic, vegetative and physio-chemical conditions of selected critical rivers in Mindanao, (2) produces GIS-generated maps regarding the socio-economic, geomorphologic, vegetative and physio-chemical conditions of selected critical rivers in Mindanao and (3) evaluates the degree of impairment and possible intervention for the selected critical rivers in Mindanao.
Mindanao’s rich agricultural economy has been attributed, to a large extent, to its natural blessings as a typhoon-free region. Endowed with rich watershed resources irrigating its thousands of hectares of land, its economy has also supported flourishing industrial activities.
The critical rivers were selected through a set of criteria agreed by the by members of the Mindanao Rivers Rehabilitation Task Force (MRRTF) composed of several government agencies that include the DENR, DILG, MGB, NIA, DPWH, EMB, NEDA, DA and provincial governments of selected areas.
In the recent years, however, Mindanao has been absorbing the brunt of ferocious calamities, including a succession of the strongest typhoons to hit the country so far. The continuous denudation of the forest has resulted to, or aggravated the disasters that destroyed properties in magnitude not seen before, immobilizing industries, and claimed thousands of lives in one sweep. The magnitude of destruction seemed to become the new norm in Mindanao. To get to the bottom of this destructive shift in the environmental panorama of Mindanao, the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) in partnership with the Mindanao Rivers Rehabilitation Task Force (MRRTF) has launched a rapid assessment under the Mindanao Nurturing Our Waters Program (MindaNOW). This was conducted by researchers from Central Mindanao University (CMU). This study was formulated to come up with the current status and degree of impairment of each river system. The result would guide and influence the formulation of interventions and TABLE 1. LIST OF ASSESSED CRITICAL RIVERS IN MINDANAO
The rivers were not covered by master plans crafted for the major river basins in Mindanao. Process of selecting these rivers includes 1) setting up parameters, namely the role of river to development (agricultural, industrial, tourism/recreation, domestic use), susceptibility to flooding, and potential threat of flooding to socio-economic development (population, agriculture, and infrastructures); 2) indicative ranking of rivers according to the parameters; 3) refining the indicators and revalidation of ranking descriptions (DENR, EMB and RBCO), and 4) finalizing list of critical rivers for intervention. Table 1 shows the list of all the 22 critical rivers covered by the rapid assessment characterization. Upstream sites of the watershed were not covered in the study due to inaccessible roads. In lieu of it, the midstream sections were assessed. Other than actual data-gathering, the concept of whole watershed assessment was also considered which included several contributory factors such as degree of slope, elevation, land cover and coverage of cultivation, stream orders, number of populations, geologic hazards and soil type of watersheds.