For those who were born before the 1970’s, were still lucky enough to have witnessed the marvels of nature along the Amburayan River. After that time, development came such as the mines that operated upstream the Amburayan River. The open pit mines polluted the entire river downstream. Good enough, the mines ceased to operate then the river started to flourish. The communities along the river learned that a clean live river will bring more benefits than profits pocketed by the few and the capitalist. They learned that environment is much more valuable and if not protected someday we might have to fetch water from the sea.
In a way to help protect the Amburayan River, an ordinance no. 30 was introduced entitled “An Ordinance Declaring The Amburayan River And All Its Tributaries As Protected River Basin And Imposing Penalty For The Violation Thereof, And For Other Purposes.” Under Section 3 of this ordinance, it states that “It shall be unlawful for any industrial establishment, business, commercial and agricultural firms, persons, political subdivisions, government owned or controlled corporations and other similar entities and instrumentalities to dump or throw garbage or to dispose of any kind of wastes into the river or any of its tributaries.”
To further support this endeavor, an ordinance no. 31 entitled “An Ordinance For A Comprehensive Garbage Collection and Disposal System For The Municipality Of Kapangan” was also enacted. Both ordinances were ordained by the Municipal Council of Kapangan authored by Reuben C. Salve in the year 2000.
To protect the entire Amburayan River, the Jaime V. Ongpin Foundation, Inc., sponsored a project aimed to protect and defend the Amburayan river basin and watersheds through good governance and active people’s participation since October 2014. The project is supported by the USAID PHILAM fund.
This project involves all stakeholders of the Amburayan River which comprise the Province of Benguet, La Union and Ilocos Sur with the municipalities of Bakun, Buguias, Kibungan Atok, Tublay and Kapangan in Benguet, Santol, Bangar and Sudipen in La Union and Alilem, Sugpon and Tagudin in Ilocos Sur.
Home Court 