Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales appealed to President Arroyo to redeclare the Marikina watershed as protected area to save Metro Manila from experiencing a water crisis. 

In a letter to Arroyo on May 26, the cardinal said some individuals are still abusing the 25,000-hectare watershed even if it was declared a protected area since 1904. 

“With the clergy and faithful of the Archdiocese of Manila, I urge you to once again declare Marikina Watershed a protected area and do not allow anyone to declare it alienable and disposable,” the prelate said in the letter.

The cardinal, a known environmentalist, blamed unscrupulous individuals for reducing the watershed to a less than 20,000-hectare water source that may, in the future, cause a water crisis in the capital.

Quoting Pope Benedict XVI in his speech at the World Water Day in March, he reminded the President that, “access to water is an alienable right that needs to be protected through change in lifestyle.”  Around 5,000 signatures from Manila’s parishioners were affixed to Rosales’s letter to the President.

According to the cardinal, the Manila archdiocese is committed to the reforestation and protection of the Marikina watershed as a source for clean and safe water.

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Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales appealed to President Arroyo to redeclare the Marikina watershed as protected area to save Metro Manila from experiencing a water crisis.