Bite the bullet and make better plans

As far as the energy summit in Davao City and government intervention is concerned, no less than President Noynoy Aquino has made it clear: the people of Mindanao will simply have to pay more for their electricity now and make better plans as far as power supply in the future is concerned.

For many businessmen in the region, such a straight forward answer maybe unpopular, but at the very least, PNoy himself has put an end to the false hopes and unrealistic expectations that government will once again bail them out by footing the bill. At the very least the people in Mindanao have now realized that they are “on their own.”

Privatizing power generation assets has always been unpopular to the public because it ultimately results in “higher” electricity rates. But that is as it should be because under government control, the public is simply living in denial because the costs are the same, we just don’t pay the full amount directly. In fact, it is an unjust socialized way of spreading the cost instead of letting the user pay for what each of them use.

Having cut the umbilical cord of government subsidy, Mindanao must now come up with solutions and choices. If businesses want to carry on, they must shift their mental matters and think EFFICIENCY.

This in fact goes, not just for Mindanao but for the booming provinces such as Cebu etc. How will Cebu and her neighbors in the region fare ten or fifteen years from now when the ever expanding commercial development and growing population require even greater volumes of power and starts affecting the over-all environment? Where will they get their power and water?

If environmentalists are correct, global warming will disrupt the established resources. If we combine this with population growth and commercial progress, it is almost certain that there will be a foreseeable shortage either in water or electricity. The question is: what is being done about it “now”?

The answer does not lie solely with engineers and power generation experts. Whatever environmental and power problems we have in the future will only be avoided by plans and programs assembled by architects, builders, urban planners, agriculturists, and civil society.

While everybody has been talking about “global warming,” many of us have not caught up with the long established practice of “urban greening.” In Metro Manila there is almost an anti-urban greening mentality. Power lines of Meralco have more priority over trees. So if it gets in contact or in the way of electric lines, trees will be drastically pruned or cut.

Local government officials especially barangay officials turn a blind eye when their street sweepers “de-bark” trees to a slow death because they want to minimize the amount of leaves they have to sweep. Time and again both the national government and local government have been guilty of denuding the urban tree line in the name of progress. To top it all, many landscape architects are so guilty of choosing design friendly trees and foliage instead of local varieties that truly give shade, generate oxygen and contribute immensely to cooling temperatures.

If the local leaders fail to recognize and shift gears, places like Cebu, Cagayan De Oro and even Davao will eventually follow Metro Manila where the only way to compensate for environmental impact and progress will be to use more electricity and at a higher cost.

Starting now, policy makers, designers and leaders can avert that expensive and unstable future through “smart” concepts such as urban greening, smart building designs based on heat deflecting surfaces, interior designs that reduce conventional air conditioning and maximizing natural lighting. Government offices, schools and facilities should be designed and built to be cool, requiring little electricity for lighting and low maintenance. Even export processing zones should be redesigned away from the factory look.

Many LGUs and the DENR are very strict about commercial use of water and the use of water treatment facilities, yet we hear very little on how government buildings especially LGUs are capturing waste water and reusing it for day to day requirements.

Recently, someone posted on Facebook about how many LGUs are so driven to pave roads in their area of responsibility to the points that no natural earth areas are left to allow rainfall to pour in. This is particularly popular in industrial areas where most open space is either a parking lot or a basketball court.

For decades, developed countries have recognized this as a problem and came up with perforated areas, gravel parking lots and green zones because they know that water needs to reach deep rooted trees and accumulated rainfall should be dispersed instead of being funneled to low lying areas and creating floods.

I sincerely hope that politicians and businessmen who read this article will realize that by going green and using smart designs, there is a profit to be made in terms of lower electricity, lower maintenance and the positive psychological effects that nature has on people.

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