Marikina's 2nd Del Run slated on April 28

Marikina takes it fight against flooding, literally, one step at a time with the  upcoming Del Run (Save the Marikina Watershed) on April 28, 5:00 a.m., at the Marikina Sports Park.  

Del Run is a fun run open to all with categories 5K, 10K and 21K, organizers said in a press release distributed to media outfits.

Marikina Mayor Del R. De Guzman said the project, which is on its second year, aims to raise funds to restore the 27,000-hectare Marikina Watershed. At its current state, there are not enough trees to prevent soil erosion which caused the Marikina River to become shallow and cause flooding in the city.  

De Guzman is, therefore, inviting everyone to register for this year’s Del Run and encourage more relatives and friends to join for the sake of raising more funds so more can be done in the fight against flooding.

Registration fee is P400 for the 5k and 10k categories, and P500 for the 21k.  

In 2012, the first Del Run was able to gather PhP980,000 with 3,000 participants.

This is currently being used on the continuous planting of 10 different kinds of trees at the Marikina Watershed like Narra, Dao, Molave, and many more.  

As of now, 5,000 forest trees have been planted and an additional 1,000 tree seedlings are to be planted in the coming months.

The collected fund is also being used to pay the caretakers of the trees from December 2012 to December 2015.  

This year’s Del Run is expected to gather 5,000 runners where funds shall be used to plant the 100,000 robusta coffee seedlings donated by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.  

Funds to be collected for this year’s fun run shall also be used for the construction of a nursery for the robusta coffee seedlings, preparation of the land to be used, and community involvement to encourage residents to help harvesting the coffee beans.  

Other flood prevention projects like the construction of a river dike, dredging activities at the Marikina River, and road construction to easily access the Marikina Watershed are also planned to combat perennial flooding.

Del Run is made possible with invaluable assistance from partner organizations and government agencies such as Ongpin Foundation, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Philippine Airforce, Philippine Army, Philippine National Police, Metropolitan Development Authority,  and Department of the Interior and Local Government.

For those who are interested to join the upcoming Del Run (Save the Marikina Watershed), please call telephone number (02) 681-9277.