Last July 25, Coca Cola Foundation launched the Go Green! Go For The Real Thing project, a tree planting activity of Coca Cola Company with the Live Positively volunteers in Marikina-Sapinit Watershed in Antipolo City in partnership with SMART and PLDT who spearheaded the campaign. For every Filipinos or even the world, in 2009 during Typhoon Ondoy Marikina, Antipolo and nearby places like Rizal and Pasig City submerged in flood and one of the reasons was the deforestation in the watersheds that could not handle the over flowing water. It was a very dark day for Luzon that time but Filipinos stood up from that fall and work on things so that it will never happen again.
Kaingin or purposeful burning of woods or forested land for agriculture or for charcoal selling is one of the reasons that lead to deforestation and flash flood, aside from quarrying and illegal logging. For others living in high areas like in Antipolo this is an easy way to earn money without thinking what will be the effect to their lives. But with the campaign it helps the residents in Marikina-Sapinit Watershed to have alternative of source of living in the future and that is through fruit bearing trees that will benefit them and the nature at the same time.
Maybe for others this campaign will take long and the effects would not be felt immediately. But everyone will have a positive way of thinking that it will benefit the future generations it shows that every seedlings that we buried now, the future generation will harvest a safer area where excess water and heavy rains that falls in the land will be held by this trees we planted before.
Go Green! Go For The Real Thing project of Coca Cola is part of the pillars of their Live Positively Campaign that focuses on Water Stewardship. There will be three stages of this campaign: Since 2010 Coca Cola returned the water they use for system operations to the environment, at a level that supports aquatic life through comprehensive wastewater treatment. By 2012 Coca Cola will improve their water efficiency by 20%, compared with a 2004 baseline. And on 2020 Coca Cola aims to replenish to nature and communities an amount of water equivalent to what is used in their finished beverages.
There will be more activities of Coca Cola that you might want to join and be a volunteer such as Coastal Cleaning that will happen soon so check out http://www.facebook.com/LivePositivelyPhilippines and www.coca-colafoundation.ph to know more.
