DENR: Build with nature, not fight it

An official of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) on Wednesday, Sept. 10, pushed for a nature-based strategy to address flooding, instead of relying on the traditional grey infrastructure which, incidentally, is the subject of an ongoing investigation over corruption-related issues.

- By DHEL NAZARIO

At the hearing of the Senate Committee on Environment, Natural Resources and Climate Change, DENR Undersecretary for Integrated Environmental Science Carlos Primo David said the mandate for flood control rests on the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), which naturally relies on grey infrastructure.

Excess water as vital resource However, he stressed the DENR's proposed approach that views excess water not merely as a hazard but as a vital resource.

"If we consider water even if it's in excess and causes flooding and traffic and all these damages, water remains to be a vital resource of the country. If we consider it as a resource, our approach to flooding should not be to flush it out to the ocean as fast as possible by creating river dikes, but instead to impound; let the excess rain infiltrate into the ground by having our watersheds intact," David said.