Cloud seeding or rain dance?

The effects of El Niño phenomenon, or the long dry spell in our country continue to wreak havoc in our normal daily living. Our neighboring countries Thailand and Bangladesh are likewise not spared from this climate change phenomenon. In the particular situation of the Philippines, the prolonged dry period is precariously affecting both our food and energy security.

As of last estimates of the Department of Agriculture, as much as P4 billion worth of crop losses have been recorded todate. Much of our agriculture sector depends on irrigated farms that have reportedly been drying up. It has also been causing the yellow and red alerts in the power supply of Luzon and Visayas. And last week, Mindanao was placed on yellow alert even when several of the country’s biggest hydroelectric power plants are located in the island. Their hydroelectric plants failed to augment the power supply shortage after several baseload power plants have been conking out the past two weeks. 

According to reports reaching him, Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian disclosed as many as 21 hydroelectric plants all around the country are not functioning due to low water dam level. Since there were not enough water in the river system supporting these dams of the hydroelectric power plants, Gatchalian renewed his call to the Department of Energy (DOE) to check their contingency plans on their El Niño “worst case scenario” to the power sector. As the vice chairman of the Senate committee on energy, Gatchalian reminded DOE Secretary Raphael Lotilla about “cloud-seeding operations” as among the immediate stop-gap measure to replenish water dams with rainwaters. Gatchalian cited the recent cloud-seeding done in Dubai. 

 While this may save the day for us, cloud seeding might be a hit-and-miss operation if the rainfall does not reach the dam. As what recently happened to Dubai that suffered the unexpected severe flooding in the capital city of the oil-rich United Arab Emirates. 

This brought to mind the “rain dance” offer of Energy Secretary Lotilla. 

“If I had the power to bring on the rains by doing a rain dance, I will be the first to do so,” the DOE chief philosophically retorted. He was obviously smarting from the tirades on him by Sen. Risa Hontiveros over DOE’s ill-preparedness to ensure a stable power supply during the El Niño period. Lotilla hastened to add though that his agency is “taking seriously the concerns” expressed by the Senator.

Actually, the short-term solutions to our extreme problems on severe drought and flooding are no brainer. What needs a lot of thinking is how to integrate the medium and long-term plans for water resource management that could work very well for an archipelagic country, like ours, surrounded by large bodies of water.

Since it was created exactly a year ago by President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. (PBBM), we have yet to hear from the Water Resource Management Office (WRMO) on what it has been able to do so far in addressing El Niño. And not to mention the drinking water that we all need to survive: Hello WRMO, how are you? 

 While the 19th Congress have yet to come out with the enabling law to create the proposed Department of Water Resources, PBBM created this transitory body called the WRMO under Executive Order (EO) No. 22. Issued on April 27 last year, EO 22 mandated the following agencies be attached to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and to work closely with the WRMO “to the extent allowed by their respective mandates.”

These are the: National Water Resources Board (NWRB); the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS Corporate and Regulatory Offices); the Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA); and the network of local water districts; and the Laguna Lake Development Authority (LLDA).

In a speech last year before a water convention body, PBBM specifically cited the need to build dikes and dams as part of flood control measures. “These are the kinds of stratagems that we have to employ, that we have to bring down to the grassroots level because the water crisis in the Philippines – and I call it a water crisis because it is,” PBBM admitted.

Fast forward. During our Kapihan sa Manila Bay news forum last Wednesday, Metro Pacific Water Corp. (MPWC) president and chief executive officer Rogelio “Babes” Singson strongly recommended to impound the rainwater for more effective management of our country’s annual rainfall volume. Singson urged the Marcos administration to prioritize the establishment of water impounding systems instead of dredging as flood control measure to ensure the country’s water security.

 Impounding the rainwater, Singson explained, would benefit the country in multiple ways: There would be available irrigation for farmers during the dry season. There would be available bulk water supply for treatment; And, it would reduce flooding.

“Once you impound the water at the top then it would reduce the water at the downstream, resulting in fewer flooding,” Singson pointed out. He calls upon the government to converge its flood control projects and irrigation programs to have a synchronized program in managing the country’s water resources.

For starters, Singson cited that the funds of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) must be integrated to lead to a better water control program. Singson once served as DPWH Secretary during the administration of the late president Benigno Simeon “Noynoy” Aquino lll. Singson is currently one of the members of PBBM’s Private Sector Advisory Council (PSAC) representing the water sector utility companies.

Singson believes that public funds are better used for water impounding in several locations around river systems than dredging as a more effective flood control-cum-water recycling measure.

There are at least, 20 to 22 typhoons that visit our country each year, including “super typhoons” when we get abnormal amount of rainfall. So we might as well impound the rainwaters rather than having these recyclable water resource go down to damage our lowlands with flood.     

Whether it is cloud-seeding, or rain dance to save us from our El Niño woes, let common sense prevail.