01 Sep Cagayan de Oro to Host 3rd International River Summit this Coming November
The biennial multi-partner national initiative International River Summit (IRS) is going to be held on November 24 to 26 with Cagayan de Oro as the host of its 3rd run. It will serve as an avenue to determine best practices, problems and opportunities.
The said conference targets to effectively organize rivers considering the four crucial issues on governance, climate change and disaster risk reduction management, water quality, and biodiversity conservation and management.
Image Source | www.3rdirscdo.com
More than 1,600 participants hailing from the different local government units (LGUs) in the Philippines, policy-makers, scientists, leading experts, river administrators, people’s organization and practitioners, support groups and indigenous communities are expected to attend the summit, with about 200 foreign experts and guests.
“Mindanao for the last five years has experienced severe flooding, including that which devastated this city where more than a thousand died and countless bodies are yet to be found during the flood brought by Typhoon Washi [local name Sendong] thus, the decision to hold this summit,” said Mayor Oscar Moreno mentioning that it is a bold move of the organizers and the LGU to hold the summit in Cagayan de Oro to assemble the participants in order to tackle a critical environmental issue and accept the challenge of protecting the country’s river basins.
Given the theme “Healthy Watersheds, Clean Rivers Safer Communities,” the third IRS is a global platform for the interchange of experience and knowledge concerning the building of a comprehensive agenda for sustainable resiliency and development of river-basin ecosystem. This is according to Dr. Hilly Ann Roa-Quiaoit who is the Summit chairman adding that the condition of the eight river basins in Mindanao, some of the 18 river basins in the entire Philippines, will be accentuated during the summit.
It can be recalled that the first summit was held in Iloilo City in 2012, with the second summit held in Marikina City in 2014. The past summits were consistent with the initiatives, and it is being expected that the summit in Cagayan de Oro would encourage information and exchanges on the latest research, best practices, technology and approaches on the river-basin and watershed governance.
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