P2M released for watershed rehabilitation
CEBU CITY, March 31 (PIA) -- The Integrated Coastal Resources Management Project (ICRMP) of the Department and Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in Region 7 has released P2 million for the rehabilitation of a 100-hectare watershed area.
The funds were released to Barangay Unity Key to Integrated Development Multipurpose Cooperative (BUKID-MPC), which will implement the rehabilitation project of the watershed area in Brgy. Magsaysay, Balamban, Cebu.
This is in line with DENR’s campaign for massive reforestation to mitigate and address the worsening effect of climate change.
DENR 7 Regional Executive Director Maximo Dichoso said this project is important as it promotes biodiversity conservation, restoration, and rehabilitation through the involvement and direct participation of people’s organization like BUKID-MPS as a project implementer.
Dichoso added that watershed is an area where water drains down from its tributaries and accumulates into a common outlet such as dams, oceans or lakes.
“It also provides habitat to wildlife flora and fauna and promotes higher biological diversity and stable ecosystem,” he said.
The watershed rehabilitation project involves the procurement and planting of 100,000 seedlings of endemic and native species. It includes the purchase of organic fertilizer, ring weeding and staking, hole digging, and patrol works.
He also pointed out that with the loss of vegetation, the sponge effect of the vegetation is gone.
Due to reduced waterholding capacity of the watershed (soil), tremendous runoff occurs during intense or extended rainfall. Eroded soil accumulates in rivers, lakes, and nearby oceans and results to sedimentation and siltation.
The DENR-7 created a regional project implementing unit inspection and monitoring team to manage and supervise the implementation of the forest plantation project and monitor the performance and progress of work in Balamban, Cebu.(rmn/PIA-7/HFG/DENR-7)
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PhilHealth prepares RNHeals for deployment
CEBU CITY, March 31 (PIA) -- PhilHealth-7 prepared the deployment of 307 nurses and 87 midwives to hospitals and other health facilities in the various local government units in Central Visayas.
This is the third batch of nurses and midwives for deployment in the province of Cebu under the Registered Nurses for Health Empowerment and Local Service of the Department of Health (DOH-RNHeals).
Recently, the batch was given an orientation to PhilHealth-related concerns they are likely to encounter in their places of assignment.
The two-day pre-deployment orientation held at the DOH-7 office included a course on the National Health Insurance Program, where PhilHealth social insurance officers briefed the nurses and midwives on the key points of the Program.
PhilHealth highlighted information on its membership programs, benefits and the rules on benefit availment.
As part of the broad objectives of Universal Health Care (UHC), RNHeals nurses and midwives are expected to take note and report on patients’ PhilHealth membership status.
Annie Lucero, DOH-7 representative to Mandaue City, Consolacion and San Remigio, also said it is important that RNHeals nurses and midwives be knowledgeable about PhilHealth because the patients or their family members may have questions about their benefits.
Lucero mentioned that some of the common queries RNHeals representatives encountered are whether stepchildren can avail of PhilHealth benefits, and when a patient can avail of full benefits again if he or she is confined a second time for the same illness.
RNHeals nurses and midwives assigned in the province of Negros Oriental already had their two-day pre-deployment orientation earlier this March.
A similar orientation will soon be held on April 2 to 3 in Bohol for those who will be assigned in that province.
In keeping with the goals of UHC or Kalusugan Pangkalahatan, DOH in partnership with the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), organized the deployment of the third batch of RNHeals to ensure the delivery of essential health goods and social services to all Filipinos, especially the poor.(mbcn/hfg/PIA-7 & Philhealth)