The City Government tied up with the Samar Partnership for Peace and Development (SPPADE) for the annual celebration of Environment Day at four o’clock in the afternoon at the City Plaza last August 8, 2009.

Prior to this, the day was started with a tree planting activity at Brgy. Socorro and was followed by a thanksgiving mass at the St. Bartholomew Parish. The mass was then followed by a motorcade, which concluded at the City Plaza to signal the start of the short program.

With this year’s environment day being celebrated barely two months after typhoon Feria ravaged the city, the organizers have decided to focus the ocassion on the campaign to rehabilitate the Antiao Watershed with the theme, “Restore Antiao, Save Catbalogan”.

The Antiao Watershed is known as the catchment of rain that is then drained into the Antiao River before passing through the areas of San Andres, Sto. Niño and Canlapwas. Post-typhoon findings that said watershed was already 75 – 80% denuded was seen to be a large factor in the flooding of the aforementioned areas.

Coupled with rainfall that registered at a record high of 212 mm, which is said to be 150% higher than the average rainfall of the 1992 Ormoc Killer Flood, the typhoon Feria proved to be one of the most destructive typhoons in the province’s history.

This was seen as a wake-up call by both the NGOs and city officials prompting them to take measures to prevent a similar disaster from happening again. One such step taken was the approval of the EO no. 5 series of 2009 which called for the creation of the Antiao Watershed Vegetation Committee.

The multi-stakeholder Antiao Watershed Vegetation Committee was tasked with overseeing the implementation of the Catbalogan Watershed Management Plan and is among the steps proposed by SPADE.

Among the areas eyed for revegetation are the watershed areas from brgy. soccoro to brgy. san andres including the watershed areas of kulador, masapasac, caramayon and other hinter barangays.