Cooling off the heated up El Niño
By Rene V. Carbayas
ISABELA CITY, Basilan, Jan 14 (PIA) – Public
apathy and people’s continued ignorance and wastage of water could heat up the
impact of El Niño in Isabela City in Basilan. With El Niño’s wrath becoming more
and more evident recently, the urgency for both public and government to act is
imperative.
The water districts of Isabela City in
Basilan and the neighboring city of Zamboanga have already started water
rationing system to mitigate the impact of the dry spell and to manage the
available water resources, as well as maximize its span until enough rain would
replenish them. Not until the rain comes, the brunt of El Niño will be felt by
the communities.
The DXNO-FM radio station here has been
receiving a lot of calls and texts recently complaining over the local water
district’s water rationing system. This, in spite of the continued information
and dissemination efforts made to update the public on the impending water
rationing system due to the dry spell as early as December 20, 2015.
The outrage of some of the callers/texters,
fueled even by local radio anchor is an indication of the locals’ ignorance and
apathy to the impending situation that the island province is facing.
Earlier in November and December last year,
the USAID Be Secure Project has gathered stakeholders from government, water
district, and non-government organizations to be oriented and updated on El
Niño and climate outlook for 2016 and beyond. Experts said that the El Niño in
the tropical Pacific may intensify from moderate to strong and will last until
the first quarter of 2016. Some areas will be experiencing less and less rains.
El Niño heats up
Based on the recent El Niño Advisory No. 10
issued by the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services
Administration (PAGASA) as of December 6, 2015, the province of Basilan will
likely be affected by dry spell from December 2015 to January 2016 and drought
from February to March 2016.
PAGASA’s rainfall forecast as of December 6,
2015 reveals that for January to March 2016 will be below normal, which means
dry conditions will likely affect most parts of the country from December 2015
to May 2016.
PAGASA said dry spell means that three
consecutive months of below normal (21%-60% reduction from average) rainfall
conditions; or two consecutive months of way below normal (more that 60%
reduction from average) rainfall conditions.
Drought, on the other hand, means three
consecutive months of way below normal (>60% reduction from average) or five
consecutive months of below normal (21%-60% reduction from average) rainfall
condition.
With this forecast, PAGASA advised those
areas affected to use water wisely. The Isabela City Water District (ISAWAD)
had also appealed to its concessionaires to help conserve and reuse water.
Water use efficiency
Be Secure Project have suggested some steps
for water demand management both for the water district and the local
government unit. The first step is to focus on institutional efficiencies by
large consumers by reducing leakage inside largest consumers and also in all
government-owned facilities such as hospitals, health clinics, schools,
government offices, and academe.
The second step involves encouraging
voluntary retrofit by large consumers and developing partnerships to train
frontline workers to do simple household water audits. Simplified water audits
involves measure or estimate liter per minute (LPM) of leaks, measure LPM and
liter per minute flow (LPF) of sanitary fixtures, determine water usage of
appliances, determine best repairs and replacements or retrofits, and multiple
savings by frequency of use.
To encourage voluntary retrofit, the water
district could offer to train a cadre of sanitary engineers and free water
audits of large consumers with practical advice on efficiency. In all public
places, encourage automatic faucets, low flush toilets (malls, airports,
waiting rooms of water district and utilities). Encourage low-flow faucets and
showerheads in hotels, hospitals; encourage recycling by large consumers of all
water used where possible. Discourage car washing with companies that own
fleets of vehicles, with regular hose unless hose has pressurized nozzle. And
encourage gray water re-use for all landscaping.
At this step, the LGU could begin to draft
revision to ordinances e.g. construction codes to encourage installation of low
flush, low consumption fixtures, roof harvesting of rainwater, reservoirs in
large developments to capture rainwater. For urban beautification (islands in
streets, parks), encourage gray water re-use in ordinances and pavers on
parking lots and sidewalks, and landscaping where possible; encourage and
support efforts of water districts to get sanitation systems in place and
re-capture gray water.
In developing partnerships, Be Secure
encouraged both the water district and the LGU to develop promotional materials
and encourage innovative ways to spread the message on-line, through cell
phones and local cable, etc. It also challenged the LGU to form promotional
task force and educate media and use them as partners.
Step three involves encouraging voluntary
retrofit with homeowners campaigns by water district to send materials to each
home with meter readers that describes the support the water demand management
can give to homeowners wishing to retrofit. At this step, the LGU could also
tap media to encourage conservation behavior during drought and promote public
awareness regularly of the state of water reserves of the locality.
Step four can start the regulatory process to
make mandatory basic demand management schemes by water district to begin
necessary capital investment to establish sewage and septage in all large
cities; recapture, treat and reuse water from septage and sewerage schemes. The
LGU, meanwhile, can begin necessary capital investment to capture/re-capture
rain water. Local ordinance should require mandatory roof harvesting of
rainwater, pavers on all public car lots to allow for soil penetration and
avert floods. The LGU can also develop small water impounding dams to capture
rain and reduce run-off by 30 percent within five years.
These are some of the steps, huge steps
perhaps, that could prepare for the worst even beyond the El Niño phenomenon.
The Be Secure Project also supported ISAWAD in its establishment of a citywide
septage management program for Isabela City where some 47,000 people could
benefit, in spite of some opposition. Recently, ISAWAD also attached IEC
materials in the bills of concessionaires.
