CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY—Noting the importance of the watershed of Lake Lanao to the power needs of Mindanao, the chairman of the newly-constituted development authority in the island has called for an interagency meeting to discuss the watershed’s management.
Jesus Dureza, chairman of the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA), said he has called an interagency meeting here to discuss the watershed management of Lake Lanao after personally seeing the widespread denudation and rampant illegal logging in the area.
The Lake Lanao watershed, situated in the boundaries of Lanao del Sur, Bukidnon and Cagayan de Oro, is a vital ecosystem in Mindanao. It feeds water to Lake Lanao which supplies most of the electricity in Mindanao.
“A wide area there has been cleared, obviously by illegal loggers,” he said, adding that he also saw cut lumber scattered in the area.
During an aerial survey of the area with Defense Secretary Norberto Gonzales on March 23, Dureza noted the poor management of the watershed, the effect of denudation and illegal logging as contributory factors to the widespread rotating brownouts being experienced all over Mindanao which has already affected the island’s economy.
The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) blamed the brownouts to the very low water inflow of the National Power Corporation’s (NPC) hydro-power complexes in Lanao del Sur and Bukidnon because of El Niño.
But according to Dureza, poor Lake Lanao watershed management, illegal logging and denudation also contribute to water wastage which in turn causes the receding water level of the lake.
NPC is extracting an average of 1 centimeter per day of water at Lake Lanao to run the turbines of the six power plants of the Agus Hydro-power Complex, located along the stretch of the Agus River, the lake’s only outlet to the sea.
NPC’s Agus Hydro-power Complex has a combined generating capacity of 639 megawatt.
Lake Lanao, located 701.35 meters above sea level in Lanao del Sur, is the second largest freshwater lake in the Philippines. It has an area of 354.60 square kilometers and a mean depth of 60 meters, with the deepest part at 112 meters.
It is one of the original fifteen (15) ancient lakes on earth and it is estimated to be over two million years old.
Lake Lanao used to be home to 18 endemic fish species that cannot be found anywhere else. But all these species are now gone.
The lake’s watershed area is 1,678.30 square kilometers.
Aside from the triple-threat identified by Dureza during his aerial survey of the lake and its watershed areas, the Environment department of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) has also noted the “sprouting” of habitations in the fringes of the lake.
“There are also built-up areas that have sprouted within the watershed, particularly near the fringes of Lake Lanao,” a report quoted DENR-ARMM Secretary Sultan Sarangani as having said.
The interagency meeting here will try to address all these and other problems.
Dureza said there is a great need to rehabilitate the areas surrounding Lake Lanao and it is of utmost importance to address these immediately, noting that the power supply of Mindanao will not be affected by El Niño.
“We do not have to look for rain when there is El Niño with an intact watershed in Lake Lanao,” he said.
He said that there is also a plan to reactivate the Lake Lanao Development Authority.
Expected to attend the interagency meeting are officials of the Environment departments, non-government organizations such as the Save Lake Lanao Movement (SALAM), people’s organization, local government units, private institutions and concerned agencies and individuals.
Dureza, however, said the meeting, which was set this week, has been postponed because those invited to participate have prior commitments.
“But it will definitely be this month because this is a very important matter that needs our immediate attention. I also would like a full attendance during the meeting because we need all the opinions of all stakeholders so we can come up with a comprehensive plan,” he told this reporter by mobile phone. (Bong D. Fabe)
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