While the first installment, amounting to approximately P109,000, was paid, the people stopped planting when their second and third payments were delayed. Until the present, the unplanted tree saplings distributed by the DENR remain in their black bags, untouched, as the community waits for further developments. Yet even if the community of Kayabu has taken a stand against the further planting of the trees, it is most probable the government will find other solutions to their resistance. The DENR insists that it is within its mandate to create the Kaliwa watershed with or without the continuation of the controversial Laiban Dam. Yet it has also admitted that the watershed project was developed as support for it.
Watersheds are a prerequisite in dam technology.
Dam with many names The Kaliwa River Basin Project, also technically known as the Manila Water Supply Project II, is a modified version of the original Laiban Dam Project originally proposed in 1981. A priority project of former President Joseph Estrada and commonly referred to as the Laiban Dam or the Kaliwa-Kanan Dam, the P 32.5 billion project aims to generate an estimated 1,900 million liters of water for five million people located in southern Metro Manila and parts of Cavite. The proposed site straddles the provinces of Rizal and Quezon, taking its power from the Lanatin River on the left side and the Lumutan River on its right hence the name Kaliwa-Kanan. The MWSS, which spearheaded the project and surveyed and assessed the area from 1983 to 1985, is reportedly unable to commit to the dam s scheduled completion in 2006 due to cash problems. Yet this does not ease the fears of the residents, who feel that these government projects that will ultimately not benefit them have been hanging over their heads for almost twenty years now.