TERESA, Rizal — In less than 25 years, there will be no more water to drink or to use in watering crops in Rizal. According to a 2014 Study conducted by World Wide Fund for Nature-Philippines (WWF-Philippines), the Morong-Teresa Sub Watershed will dry up. This raises issues of climate change, unabated development, and unsustainable water management practices.
Republic Cement has turned its quarry into a catchment that harvest rainwater. The Teresa Quarry Rainwater Catchment holds about 235 billion liters of water which equals to 11,750 water delivery tankers. If this amount of water freely runs off, this would have caused massive flooding in the area. During the dry season, the collected water supplies our cement plant for its operational water requirement including fugitive dust abatement.
A neighbor farmer Willie Natividad of Barangay Dulumbayan expresses gratitude to Republic Cement because of this initiative. The water from the catchment is shared to the farmers ensuring that they can plant 2 crops of rice a year while allowing vegetable growing in between. He also shared that the catchment helps in the flood-prevention of the Teresa town which is situated on a valley in between mountains. He said, “Kami ay pagpapasalamat po ng lubos sa Republic Cement dahil sa pamamagitan ng Quarry 1 catchment nila ay kahit panahon na ng tag init ay may sapat kaming supply ng patubig at may benepisyo pang dagdag na vegetable cropping tulad ng petchay pagkatapos ng ikalawang anihan ng palay. Malaki rin po ang tulong nito tuwing maulan at kahit malakas ang buhos nito ay di rumaragasa ang tubig at naiiwasan ang pagbaha sa aming lugar.”
Rainwater harvest is only one of Republic Cement’s contribution to wider collective efforts of managing our finite natural resources. In partnership with community and collaboration with stakeholders, we build a more climate-change resilient, stronger Republic.|
