Citing bamboo’s “climate-smart superiority”, the Department of Agriculture (DA) is eyeing the woody plant to fight the flooding problem in the country.
With this, the agriculture department is promoting partnerships with infrastructure and public works agencies for a program that utilizes bamboo to mitigate flooding nationwide.
Agriculture Usec. Deogracias Victor B. Savellano has asserted that bamboo is now globally positioned as a flood-control device, saying that it has been proven effective. He added: “Philippines should similarly adopt best practices and technologies.”
“Bamboo’s number one characteristic is it is fast-growing. Second is it fights soil erosion,” he noted. “When it comes to cost-effectiveness, bamboo will be our excellent ally, second to none.”
Savellano emphasized that President Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos Jr.'s commitment to upholding the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations makes the Philippines' push toward bamboo propagation an urgent need given the country's ongoing flooding problems.
It was noted that the Kilusang 5K (Kawayan: Kalikasan, Kabuhayan, Kaunlaran, Kinabukasan) Foundation Inc., a movement formed by Savelleno, is taking part in as much as 26,000 hectares of bamboo planting in the Marikina Watershed even with its effort. It's a public-private cooperation.
“Kilusang 5K piloted since 2021 with 30 hectares of bamboo planting in Karugo and Puray, Montalban. It is a part of the Marikina watershed to whose denudation destructive flooding in Metro Manila is blamed,” it stated.
According to the DA official, bamboo has crucial functions in restoring degraded land, reforestation, carbon sequestration, and poverty reduction in the fight against flooding.
“With some bamboo species growing by more than one meter per day, bamboo must be the fastest growing plant on earth,” he said.
The huge tropical bamboo exporter Guada Bamboo in Latin America claimed that "one hectare of Guada Bamboo forest can store more than 30,000 liters of water in its culms during the rainy season which it gradually deposits back in the soil during the dry season."
During the rainy season, it reportedly stores vast amounts of water in its extensive network of stems and rhizomes, and during dry spells, it releases water back into the soil, rivers, and streams.