Davao City gets Int'l award as livable community

City Planning Coordinator Engineer Ivan Cortez said that the city received a bronze award for Livable Communities by LivCom during the 21st International Awards on June 2 in Valleta, Malta.

Cortez during the I Speak Media Forum on Thursday (June 8) said that the award was given in recognition for the city’s green efforts.

He said Davao was picked from among 232 cities from all over the world and became among the 22 that were chosen as awardees. 

The city received the bronze award under Category 8 for those with more than 400,000 population, along with Eskisehir Turkey and Narayanganj, Bangladesh. For that category, the 1st gold was given to Abu Dhabi UAE, the 2ND gold to Xinyang, P.R. China, and the 3rd gold to Cankaya District, Ankara Turkey. 

Likewise, Katowice Poland, and Avcilar, Turkey were chosen to be the silver awardees. 

The award was given through a hybrid awarding setup, where City Environment and Natural Resources Office Head Engr. Marivic Reyes was also given the opportunity to present the city’s greening efforts.

Cortez said that the award serves as an evaluation of the efforts of the city in terms of greening and sustainability.

“They took notice of our efforts in terms of parks development, peace and security, and also our efforts in protecting our remaining trees,” he said.

Cortez said that the city is lucky to have a green advocate leadership through the city mayor, who pushes and takes further these initiatives.

“We have a standing order from the mayor to further improve the greening efforts of the city, we are introducing greening efforts in our sidewalks and our center islands. We want to lessen the urban heat effect, especially in our downtown areas because it is very hot during noon time,” Cortez said.

The city is now finalizing the design for sidewalk greening projects to allow pedestrians to walk instead of riding jeepneys.

“We are trying to enhance this zone in our arcaded zone. The arcaded zone is from our City Hall all the way to the Mental Hospital. So that is our arcaded zone, we will enhance the features of our sidewalks in those areas,” he said.