Build 'turkey nests' to control floods

Typhoon Pepeng didn’t cause a food shortage in Batanes. The weather disturbance hardly affected the northernmost island-province. The “lack of rice and powdered milk” was concocted. A politico only wanted to get his hands on no-audit calamity funds from Malacañang.

Batanes’s real scarcity is electricity. The local Napocor unit suddenly had changed its methods of procuring diesel to run the power plant. It held a bidding for diesel supply only in Aug., when its stocks were critically low at 100,000 liters, good only for a month. A winner was declared for the required 800,000 liters, but a separate auction was held for the hauling from mainland Luzon. The winning hauler has no experience or vessel, and so couldn’t deliver. The Napocor had had to ask the Navy to ship an emergency 60,000 liters in Sept., at a cost of P1.2 million to taxpayers. A second Navy run for Oct. could no longer be made. The Batanes power plant shut down last weekend. And with it turned off the air and seaports, electronic communications, and the province’s prime income earner of cultural tourism.

An investigation is in order, on why or for how much the Napocor did what it did.

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Cotabato Rep. Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza proposes the harvesting of rainwater to prevent floods and have irrigation in summer. That way, she says, communities can put to good use the strong rains half of the year and cope with droughts in the other half.

The idea is not new. Felicito Payumo, an engineer, had built a series of water impounders in the ‘80s when he was congressman of Bataan. He in turn copied it from so-called “turkey nests” in the Australian outback.

Payumo’s model was simple. He concreted a series of hilltops into mini-dams that collected rainwater from May to Sept. Water was released in controlled volumes in the following months to irrigate surrounding rice lands. Spillways were built circular, so water spiraled downhill, gathering momentum from gravity to reach far-flung farms. The system not only helped lessen floods in Bataan, but also increased agricultural yields.

Payumo’s water impounders were such a hit that the agriculture department tried to popularize it nationwide. It supplied cement, gravel, sand, hollow blocks and re-bars to barangays that mobilized free labor.

Then-congressman Eric Acuña of Pangasinan polished Payumo’s idea. After erecting mini-dams in his district, he seeded the impounded water with tilapia. And because the land around the impounders was always wet, he planted it with fast-growing softwood. A rural banker, Acuña then turned over the supervision of the impounders to barangay councils. The grassroots governments introduced park boating, picnic huts, lover’s lanes, wall climbing and bait fishing for nominal fees that defrayed maintenance costs. So, from flood control-cum irrigation, the impounders became income earners from tourism, leisure and wood trade.

Cigarette maker Lucio Tan continues the idea in the Ilocos region. A foundation run for him by ex-agriculture minister Salvador Escudero builds water impounders for tobacco, rice and corn farmers. The system replaces artesian wells in areas where salty seawater has permeated into the aquifer.

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Sr. Supt. Elmer M. Jamias, Muntinlupa City police chief, reacts to my piece last Wednesday, “Are we safe from our own police?” It pertains to Stephanie, whom two uniformed men in a patrol car attempted to rob and abduct on the night of Oct. 5 a few meters from her subdivision home. Excerpts:

“I directed the Investigation Division Chief to gather all information to identify the suspects. I also directed the Precinct-3 Commander to locate-invite the (victim) to shed light on this case. If evidence proves that the culprits are members of the Muntinlupa City police, rest assured that we will not tolerate wrongdoings, punish them to the full extent of the law, and furnish you with the results.”

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Meanwhile, a Manila police officer wants to regulate the sale of mini-cameras, cell phone monitors and vehicle trackers flooding the market from China. He fears that criminals can enhance illicit trades with the spy-ware.

The gadgets actually are practical for home and office — to monitor babies and sick elderly, employees’ activities, or vehicle fleets from afar. They can also improve police surveillance and patrols. Spy-ware acquired a bad image when voyeurs, pornographers and unauthorized eavesdroppers came into the picture.

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“Waste not your time on what could have been. Focus on what can still be.” Shafts of Light, Fr. Guido Arguelles, SJ. Kindly pray for his speedy recovery from emphysema.

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