Water High in Cabinet Agenda as RP prepares for next El Niño Episode
Mike Banos
August 14, 2009
A report from one of the nation´s top business dailies quotes deputy presidential spokesman Rolando Tungpalan as saying President Arroyo has issued directives to the Cabinet to prioritize six areas, foremost of which are a possible water crisis and climate change, which the country faces after weathering the slowdown in the global economy.
Tungpalan, concurrently National Economic and Development Authority deputy director-general, said data from the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) indicate that drought is seen to hit the country in late 2009 to early next year.
Already, the top two agencies charged with the stewardship of the country´s water resources have began drawing up contingency plans to address the imminent threat posed by the El Niño.
The National Water Resources Board (NWRB) has made contingency measures for water conservation in preparation for the drought has been made the agency´s top priority while the Department of Environment and Natural Resources is studying steps to take regarding the President´s directives to focus on carbon trading and investments in green industries.
While alarm bells are yet not ringing in Cagayan de Oro, it is apparent all stakeholders involved in the stewardship of the city´s dwindling groundwater and surface water resources have to meet soon to draw up measures to address the impending water crisis.
Government officials and planners who remember the disastrous drought of 1981 would rather forget how it caught everyone literally with their pants down as the country´s worst El Niño episode in years came near to shutting down Mindanao´s hydro-electric plants, forcing the National Power Corporation to impose drastic power cutbacks. At its worst, the power agency was forced to resort to two-hour rotating brownouts, almost shutting down malls and supermarkets as ambient temperatures hit record highs at the height of summer with no air-conditioning to seek cool down the people´s rising tempers.
Considering the stakes, air conditioning would be the least concern of stakeholders in the city´s water industry. Considering how fast the static and pumping water levels in the Cagayan de Oro City Water District´s 24 operational deep wells are sinking, their production volume from this source will be further stressed as people resort to water from the tap to cool themselves.
Water for agriculture, Northern Mindanao´s top performing economic sector in 2008, would also be a priority as irrigation would undoubtedly be constrained, especially when the drought is expected to hit its highest in the first quarter of 2010, also an expected period of stress and tension as preparations for the May national elections get going.
Although it enjoys a strategic advantage in facing up to the impending water crisis brought by the expected arrival of the latest El Niño during the last quarter of this year because of its bulk water supply, the COWD can hardly afford to rely entirely on its bulk water supplier Rio Verde Water Consortium Inc. which also shares the waters of the Baungon River where it abstracts its bulk water supply for treatment. Food security (read: irrigation needed to maintain farm production of basic food supplies especially rice and corn) merits the same priority in the government´s contingency plans as drinking water, and a balance will have to be struck early between how much of the available water supply will be allocated for each sector.
However, as long as stakeholders in the city´s food and water security get cracking to draw up and implement contingency plans early, there´s no reason to push the panic button on either sector yet. It´s when temperatures are rising, available water shrinking and draconian measures such as water and power cutbacks become inevitable that we look back with regret and remorse to this time now when we could have avoided it all.
30-
Print
Email
