Davao Barangay Site of Artificial Reef Project Launch

DAVAO City Water District (DCWD) launched its artificial reefs project in Barangay Bago Aplaya in celebration of May as the Philippine Ocean Month through an orientation on Artificial Reefs Making on May 19

The launch was attended by barangay officials headed by Barangay Capt. Cristito Lazaro, purok leaders, and residents.

Topics discussed were “Overview of Marine Protected Area” and “What is an Artificial Reef?” by resource persons Aylwin Ventura of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) and Aimee Evora of the City Agriculturist Office (CAO). After the orientation, the participants agreed to conduct the project as contest among the puroks in Barangay Bago Aplaya to involve and develop the community’s sense of ownership. They also brought discarded plastic bottles for DCWD’s year-round 2Big Campaign of recycling plastic wastes into school chairs to be donated to public elementary schools.

As of the deadline of submission of entry forms set on May 26, six puroks confirmed their participation to the contest. Generally, each participant will make one artificial reef based on the guidelines set by DCWD together with BFAR, CAO, and Department of Environment and Natural Resources, which are member agencies of Davao City Coastal Resource Management-Technical Working Group. DCWD is working closely with these agencies from the identification and assessment of the most feasible project site until the monitoring and evaluation phase.

One month is allotted for the making of entries while the rest of the project activities are slated in July and October this year.

The 2017 Ocean Month is themed Tayo at Ang Karagatan complementing DCWD’s 2Big Campaign. (Mindanao Times)