LOOK: Giant bamboo to be planted in Marikina watershed

Fr. Beltran with a giant bamboo shoot. Image: Facebook/Benigno P. Beltran

A giant bamboo will be planted in the Marikina watershed, a move which has been commended as essential after the city was devastated by recent storms, including Typhoon Ulysses.

Fr. Benigno Beltran, founder of the performing arts group from Smokey Mountain, “Mga Anak ni Inang Daigdig,” announced on Facebook the group’s initiative to plant a giant bamboo at the Marikina watershed.

“Mga Anak ni Inang Daigdig” has been designated as “Ambassadors for Peace and Environment” by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines.

Fr. Beltran showed a bamboo shoot that will be planted, as per his Facebook post on Friday, Nov. 20.

“Dendrocalamus Asper – we will plant the Philippine Giant Bamboo along the river banks of the Marikina River and its tributaries along the Marikina Watershed… In ideal conditions, [its] poles can reach up to 14 inches at the base,” he said.

Dendrocalamus Asper is the scientific name for giant bamboo, a species native to Southeast Asia.

According to him, their group was given 600 hectares in the Marikina Watershed to reforest with bamboo.

Marikina has been one of the areas in Luzon hardest hit with devastation from Typhoon Ulysses, which has been compared with the 2009 tropical storm Ondoy for the massive flooding it brought to the city. JB

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