EDITORIAL - Wasting water

The water in Angat Dam remains at critical level despite incessant rains. Meanwhile, Bustos Dam about 50 kilometers away has been discharging water as rain keeps raising the water to spilling level.

While Bustos does not source its water entirely from Angat, instead collecting water from local tributaries and rainfall over its immediate area, the two reservoirs lie along the same Angat River in Bulacan.

Inevitably, people wonder why so much water is being wasted in Bustos while the water at the Angat reservoir has been below critical level for some time now.

Isn’t there water management technology that can retain the water in Bustos instead of having the excess spilled and wasted? The stored water can then augment the lack in Angat Dam, which supplies over 90 percent of Metro Manila’s water needs as well as irrigation water for farms in Bulacan and Pampanga apart from generating hydropower.

There are existing technologies for more efficient harvesting and storage of rainwater. Such technologies are important especially in a country with only two seasons: wet and dry.

During the wet season, torrential rainfall causes deadly floods and landslides. On the other hand, during the dry season, farms lie fallow from drought.

Mahar Lagmay, executive director of the Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazards or Project NOAH, has pointed out that rainwater retention systems are needed even in Metro Manila for flood management.

Lagmay previously urged Metro Manila residents to catch rainfall and stormwater runoff in their homes and offices to ease the burden on overwhelmed street drains and help mitigate flooding. The harvested water can be used, he said, for gardening, cleaning driveways and similar purposes.

There are emerging technologies not only to harvest rainwater, but also to harness the kinetic power of rain droplets for renewable energy. One report described it as transforming rooftops and drainpipes into renewable power stations.

Japanese capital Tokyo is spared from floods through its massive discharge channel built 50 meters underground. The system catches and pumps away overflowing water during typhoons through a system of tunnels, huge silos and pillars, with a tank that can hold up to 670,000 tons of water.

Bulacan has been the center of investigations on large-scale corruption related to flood control. The billions lost to corruption in that province could have been used instead for modern water retention and management technology in the dams.

But the government can still make up for lost time and resources. Given the risks posed by extreme weather, the country has no choice but to invest in smart water management.